Colorado Springs Business Journal, Mar 11, 2005 by Marylou Doehrman
Heavy snowfall in the mountains this winter could turn into a nice spring runoff, which has created a lot of hype about the end of a drought. But don't be led down the garden path too soon.
It's irresponsible to think we are out of the drought, said Jack Flobeck, the president of Aqua Prima Center Inc., a Colorado Springs nonprofit water think tank. We may have one great year, but we could go four years after that with nothing. And look at the reservoirs around the state & if you're not scared, you're not very bright.
Flobeck hopes to enlighten those who are dreaming of a summer amid moss green yards and blooming flower gardens.
He initiated the water think tank in early 2004 and received Aqua Prima's designation as a 501(c) 3 in August. Including Flobeck, Aqua Prima has 10 board members who hail from a variety of professions.
Flobeck also brings a variety of experience to the nonprofit organization. He graduated with an engineering degree from Yale University. He has been the chief executive officer of DAKIN 5, a national software firm; a regional manager for Western Reserve Life, an insurance company; and commercial real estate salesman. Flobeck also started seven companies.
I like to start things, he said. Thus, the reason he combined his background and a passion for Colorado and the nation's water situation to form Aqua Prima.
This think tank is a do tank, too, Flobeck said.
If you google 'think tank,' you can get a million entries, he said. Under U.S. think tanks, there are 78 listed, and most of them were started to push a political view. A couple of them are related to resources, but their interests are widespread. No one is doing water, and I think we are filling a void.
Flobeck's goal is to avoid another void, which is think tank accountability. He wants to ensure his supporters that their money is going for something tangible.
I want to be accountable, he said. I want to be able to say we've gotten $100,000 or whatever in donations and we've saved this acreage of water. We want to be an honest broker of information.
Honesty to Flobeck also means foregoing agendas, egos and territorial water rights.
No matter the battleground, he said water issues are global. You can't talk about water in Colorado without understanding that rain clouds are formed over the Pacific, he said. One drop of water could have 40 million miles under its belt, so you can't isolate the issue to El Paso County. It's stupid for us to fight and say 'it's my water.' It's a big picture issue.
There are some ideas lurking in the minds of water conservationists like Flobeck and the Aqua Prima group that could shrink the big picture to the individual homeowner.
Flobeck said American households waste about a half-gallon of water every morning washing faces and brushing teeth. The amount of water that is lost from the faucet flow is referred to as gray water, and Aqua Prima board members are making headway on a plan to retrieve and recycle that water.
Dave Anderson is the vice-president of commercialization for Aqua Prima. He said technology to retrieve gray water has been on the plate for 20 years. Developed by a man who lives in Brush, Colo., the recycling device re-routes the waste water from the sink to the toilet, so the water that is flushed is gray water. You flush your toilet with the same water that you use in your shower, Anderson said. That simple device would save 50 percent of the water that people consume every day, he said.
The gray water recycling device has never been on the market because of what Anderson referred to as archaic regulations regarding water rights. Our laws and regulations concerning water rights are major obstacles, he said.
Anderson said that after they update the design, the Aqua Prima group will pursue regulatory changes that get that device under radar.
Doing so will require collaboration, Flobeck said. Coloradoans need to rethink their green expectations and realize their home state is high desert, and homebuilders and utility personnel need to embrace the technology that mitigates waste water, he said.
Although water rights regulations don't necessarily embrace new technology, Dick Wolfe, an engineer with the Colorado Division of Water Resources, said devices that are used for internal reuse in the home are not too problematic. The Colorado Health Department doesn't separate gray water and black (sewage) water for regulatory purposes, he said.
But water quality tends to be a big issue when they are trying to use it outside, Wolfe said. There could be issues related to things like viruses and bacteria. Treating the water and making it more potable might help but then the issue of water quality comes up.
In Wolfe's eyes, Aqua Prima's 20-year-old device for recycling gray water in the home could be a beginning.
Aqua Prima also is researching wireless irrigation and desalination units (alleviating the loss of fresh water in disaster situations) and the initiation of water currencies, which implement a series of trades - water rights, ditch rights - that are set up through a statewide pool or cooperative. Members of the cooperative who have pooled their water rights are entitled to aqua bucks, a system of bartering for water flow.
When it comes to water issues, it's not easy to get everyone flowing in the same direction. Water is not something people pay attention to, Anderson said. The irony is that there is probably nothing that will affect us more in the long term than the availability of water.