Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Northern Water voiced opposition Wednesday to the Western Slope’s proposal to spend $99 million to buy historic water rights on the Colorado River from Xcel Energy. The Colorado River Water Conservation District has been working for years to buy the water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant, a small, easy-to-miss hydropower plant off Interstate 70 east of Glenwood Springs. The highly coveted water rights are some of the largest and oldest on the Colorado River in Colorado. The Front Range providers are concerned that any change to the water rights could impact water supplies for millions of city residents, farmers, industrial users and more. … The proposed purchase taps into a decades-old water conflict in Colorado: Most of the state’s water flows west of the Continental Divide; most of the population lives to the east; and water users are left to battle over how to share it.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• Aspen Public Radio: On the ground: A nonprofit spotlight on the Middle Colorado Watershed Council
• Reasons To Be Cheerful: ‘We are the people of the river’: The Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe is working to heal the ailing Colorado River ecosystem by planting one native seed at a time
• The Arizona Republic (Phoenix): Experts: Arizona and other states need to stop fighting over water and do something now