Experts: Water at risk from climate change

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — More frequent sewer overflows, tanking stream water quality, reservoir water storage problems and a higher risk of catastrophic wildfire — all are expected to be consequences of human-caused global warming, which may leave Colorado’s water supplies vulnerable in the coming decades, two climate experts told water managers during a Colorado Water Congress meeting Wednesday.

“This is why it sounds like a doom and gloom presentation; there are so many ways climate change can ripple through water resource planning and utility operations,” Boulder water consultant Bob Raucher said.

And make no mistake, global warming is “unequivocally” real, and it is likely caused by humans and our greenhouse gas emissions, said climate researcher Joel B. Smith of Boulder-based Stratus Consulting, a lead author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent global warming report.

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