Coming soon to a billboard or bus kiosk near you: An ad campaign that’s intended to educate Coloradans, especially those in urban communities, about the importance of Colorado’s water future.

And what better place to launch than at the world’s leading business-to-business outdoor sports show, the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market?

Outside the Colorado Convention Center, supporters no Wednesday showed what the future would look like if Coloradans don’t take a looming water shortage seriously. 

The campaign – known as “For the Love of Colorado” – isn’t only about educating Coloradans about water. It’s also intended to help drum up support for the state water plan. 

The campaign will run for a couple of years, according to Jon Goldin-Dubois of Western Resource Advocates, one of the more than 40 organizations supporting the effort. 

The campaign points out that Colorado’s population is expected to double between now and 2050, but the state’s water supply is expected to go in the opposite direction. Focused primarily on water use coming from the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people in seven states and northern Mexico, the campaign points out that the water supply originating in the Colorado River basin could decrease by between 6% and 20% by 2050.

The Colorado is already the “most stressed” river in the nation, the website claims.

The website, which went live this week, points out that “everything you love about Colorado is connected back to water: kayaking, fishing, peaches, beer, the thriving economy.”

But Coloradans are using more water than the Colorado River supplies. While the state had a great snowpack in the 2018-19 winter, it’s “just a drop in the bucket compared to how much we’ll need. So in order to keep this amazing state a great place to live, work and do business, we need to support Colorado’s water plan,” he said.

What’s impressive about the effort, Goldin-Dubois told Colorado Politics, is the breadth of stakeholders who are involved. That includes the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, the outdoor recreation industry, mainstream businesses, water utilities, conservation organizations, Club 20, the Colorado Municipal League, the governor’s outdoor recreation industry office and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.

“Without water, our future would be bleak. This is an unique opportunity to bring together people who don’t always see eye to eye” on issues, he explained.

The campaign’s head is “water’s the lifeblood of the west. We wouldn’t have the quality of life we have [without it].”

Part of the goal of the campaign is to educate citizens about where Colorado’s water comes from, the challenges to supply and solutions to those challenges. 

“I hope that the campaign will make people more conscious about where the water comes from, and to understand that one wet year – and 2019 was a great year – doesn’t begin to solve the challenges we have on our river systems,” Goldin-Dubois said. “We’re hoping people will understand this in the context of warmer climates …. We want people to understand their impact and how they can contribute to solutions.”

Andy Mueller, general manager of the 15-county Colorado River District, was also on hand to help launch the campaign.

“We have a crisis on the Colorado River …. Without this river, we’re in trouble,” Muller said, adding that the river is expected to be in a 50% decline by the end of the century.

“We have a gap in water supply and a plethora of solutions to fill the gap. All of that takes money, and we have a funding gap. We need more.”  

When the water plan was rolled out in 2015 by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, the estimated cost was around $20 billion. That’s more than what the state intends to spend on transportation ($9 billion), more than 10 years of funding for full-day kindergarten ($1.75 billion), and about two-thirds of the amount in the 2019-20 state budget ($30.5 billion).

The state is not expected to pick up the entire tab for the water plan; about $17 billion of that is estimated to come from water providers. But the state’s obligation is around $3 billion, and water officials had hoped that the state would start kicking in about $100 million for the next 30 years, beginning in 2020.

So far, the water plan’s funding has been in much smaller amounts, largely paid for with severance taxes. That came to an end this year, when Gov. Jared Polis tapped $10 million out of the general fund to pay for ongoing work on the water plan, which calls for more water conservation, efforts to improve river health and more storage.

In May, the U.S. Drought Monitor, for the first time in 20 years, declared Colorado drought-free. However, that doesn’t mean that reservoirs that have been low for years are back to full strength; as of a month ago, some were at no more than 25% of capacity. 

Sukle Advertising came up with the campaign materials. Tim Wohlgenant, former of the Trust for Public Lands, will lead the campaign. He noted the steering committee includes former lawmaker Russ George, who now heads the state’s Interbasin Compact Committee; Kelly Brough of the Metro Denver Chamber, Sam Mamet of the Colorado Municipal League; Jim Lockhead from Denver Water; Terry Fankhauser of the cattlemen’s association; Tom Gougeon of the Gates Family Foundation; and Mueller.