The man with the (some might call impossible) plan
When it comes to water, Colorado is in trouble. Our water supply is unpredictable and will likely diminish in the coming years. The state is warming up—the average temperature has risen over 2 degrees over the last three decades and is expected to rise between 2.5 and 5 degrees in the next three. Meanwhile, our population is slated to boom, nearly doubling by 2050. This all presents a rather troubling equation.
It’s an equation that one guy in the Hickenlooper cabinet has on his mind quite a bit. James Eklund, the director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, has the unenviable task of coming up with the first statewide water plan in a place where water has been contentious for centuries.
This fall, I had the incredible opportunity to write a feature story on Eklund, the development of the water plan, and the scope of the water situation in Colorado. I knew little about the topic before the assignment landed in my lap (thank you, 5280 magazine), but over the course of a month I became completely obsessed with it. I read reams of documents, interviewed dozens of people, and traveled to Denver to meet with more. The result is a 5,200-word narrative on Eklund, an intensely smart, perennially optimistic guy with a task that may be—depending whom you ask—critical, impossible, or both. Read the full story in the December issue of 5280, Denver’s city magazine.