“…all of these devices have some inaccuracies. And though you’re always going to have people who want more precision, it’s good for all water users to understand there is an inherent inaccuracy in water measurement.” — Stephen Smith, president, Aqua Engineering water commissioners and our users utilize that on a daily basis.” In 1881, when Stimson began work, he installed Colorado’s first gauging station. Now the state owns and operates more than 480, Wolfe says, and each has a satellite telemetry system. Another 270 stream gauging stations are operated by the United States Geological Survey. Today, Colorado is awash in water data and is racing to employ new technologies and the Internet to make it widely and quickly available. Data that was once distributed monthly in the South Platte Basin is now available to water users continuously online so that everyone who has an interest in a given stream segment, from farmers to city utility managers, can find out how much water is moving through the system and who is diverting at any given time. “People expect transparency of government and they like this transparency,” says Wolfe. “They can see what their neighbors are diverting. But now we like to say that the division has 114 water commissioners and 3,000 volunteers, which include all the users looking at things on the Internet.” Pressure continues to build to do more. “The opportunity and the demand and the need is greater now than it ever was before,” says Stephen Smith, president of Fort Collins-based Aqua Engineering. New automated measuring and control devices known as SCADA systems are helping streamline water deliveries. The term stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. “It’s kind of a catchall phrase,” Smith says. It brings together sensors, processors and actuators into a computerized, radio-controlled system. Once seen only in industrial settings, the systems are now being used in high-stakes water regions like the South Platte, where millions of dollars worth of water must be carefully shared between fast-growing cities and farmers. “About seven years ago, we began taking these systems out to ditch companies and saying, ‘Here’s a way you can read this 14
“The fact is that all of these devices flume remotely and not have to drive five have some inaccuracies,” says Smith. miles twice a day to read it,’” Smith says. New automated gates can also be “And though you’re always going to have run via SCADA systems so that when a people who want more precision, it’s good gauge reading shows the river has fallen for all water users to understand there is an and a user no longer has the right to inherent inaccuracy in water measurement divert, the gate can be closed immedi- and you just have to deal with it.” For every stretch of stream that has ately. Water users without this technology must wait for a gauge reading and a 2009 technology on it, there are several water commissioner’s call before physi- more whose diversion structures date cally going out to the field to either shut back to the late 1800s. It is these strucoff or turn on a diversion structure. In the tures that Wolfe says are likely to cretime that takes, thousands of gallons of ate issues in the future. “Irrigation and reservoir companies are going to have water can be lost downstream. “The sociology of all of this is very big challenges just to meet the cost of interesting,” Smith says. Many canal replacing these structures. If you’re trymanagers, for instance, have never ing to manage water with them, it’s very seen SCADA systems. “They’ve always difficult. They have cracks in them, or opened head gates, then read the flume, they seep water. You really don’t know then traveled back and adjusted the head how much water you’re ultimately getting gate again. They’re quite skilled at it.” But down the river,” he says. Upgrading these structures and bringwhen they see these systems work, they realize how quickly and efficiently the ing record-keeping practices up to modwork can be done, Smith says. “I call it ern standards is critical as water supplies continue to tighten in Colorado. the ‘Oh, duh’ moment.” “We’ve measured water for centuries As year-round, hour-by-hour water management gains ground, water man- in the world,” says Wolfe. “I don’t think agers continue to worry about preci- there are questions about data collection sion. Even with satellites and hundreds of itself anymore. I think the bigger challenggauges, determining exactly how much es are to maintain the structures and to water is flowing through a head gate or transmit the information quickly and accupast a gauge at any given moment is still rately. These records are our legacy.” q difficult. A Parshall flume, for instance, has an accuracy rating of plus or minus 5 percent. New automated Rubicon Gates, manufactured in Australia, have an accuracy rating of plus or minus 2 percent, Smith says, and they have been installed in some locations on the Real-time flow information, including gauge height and discharge, is available at South Platte. www.dwr.state.co.us/SurfaceWater/Default.aspx.
C o l o r a d o f o u n d at i o n f o r W at e r E d u c at i o n