Conversations about water in Colorado are often laden with emotion, fear and subject to dated stereotypes. As new and innovative water solutions emerge that address both the increasing demand for additional water and the economic and agricultural needs in our state, it is essential to drill down to the bedrock facts of proposals and avoid using decades-old talking points to dismiss these innovators – and thus perpetuate the unsustainable status quo.

One such proposal that avoids the pitfalls of the past is offered by Renewable Water Resources (RWR) – a plan with which I am proud to be associated. While vastly different from other water plans, it has been subjected to the same worn-out allegations that plague water proposals, even though these false charges don’t come close to being true about RWR. And it is particularly disappointing that they are being leveled by politicians who have offered no solutions of their own and are being repeated by our state Attorney General who leveled unsubstantiated allegations without checking the facts.

Those who are opposing this plan are essentially saying they don’t value private property rights. Water rights are just as much private property as a person’s ranch, livestock or family home. When the attorney general and state Sen. Cleave Simpson claim they will do all they can to stop the voluntary selling of water rights, they are saying to Coloradans that they know better than you do what to do with your private property. Make no mistake: the RWR plan will work with only willing sellers of water rights. That means someone who wants to sell a part of his or her water rights to pay down debt, acquire some new farming or ranching equipment or put a child through college can do that. That’s their right as Americans and as Coloradans. On the flip side, if there are no willing sellers, the plan will not go forward.

Specifically, the plan will access 22,500 acre-feet of water in the San Luis Valley. While politicians are quick to scare local residents by offering the usual “buy and dry” label, RWR is the opposite. The plan will help alleviate the state-ordered curtailment of water use while improving surface water by retiring 32,000 acre-feet of water. This means NO net new pumping of water will take place, complying with Colorado water law. In fact, the RWR plan will retire more water than it develops.

The water that RWR will access is renewable. That means it comes from an aquifer that refills every year with what water engineers estimate to be 1.2-million-acre feet annually. RWR will access just 2.5% of this renewable water that is annually recharged.

This also puts to rest the false assertion that there is “no water” available in the SLV. This is another of the decades-old fear based, but empty, talking points. The San Luis Valley pumps over 600,000 acre-feet of water from the aquifers every year.

Status-quo politicians who are stoking fear are doubling down on one valid reality: the San Luis Valley is one of the most economically challenged areas of our state. Farmers, ranchers and other residents of the Valley are absolutely right to cast a skeptical eye on water proposals, correctly wondering if people who propose them have the Valley’s needs in mind at all.

RWR has held literally hundreds of grassroots meetings in the Valley to share the plan and specifically speak to the region’s economic future. It has been well received by many.

Curiously absent from the politicians’ narrative is the fact that as a condition of the plan going into effect, RWR will create a $50 million community fund, operated by local leaders in the Valley, not by RWR. This is the equivalent of injecting up to $4 million every year into the regional economy.

This is a carefully crafted plan, focused on the current and future realities in the San Luis Valley, including the fact that farmers and ranchers are being charged – taxed, really – by local water districts to not pump their own water. Neither the attorney general, nor Sen. Cleave Simpson, who splits his time between the state Senate and running the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, have offered a vision for economic recovery and progress. Indeed, we have asked Sen. Simpson for his plan repeatedly. He declines to offer anything. Sen. Simpson’s constituents should demand more from him than merely “no.”

My experience over decades in public service and in private business is that the best Colorado solutions are those that are rooted in real conversations, especially among those with differing viewpoints. We in the West are used to working together and these rough-and-tumble talks often produce stronger, better, sharper solutions.

What Colorado does not need now, or in the future, are politicians pandering for political gain using stale, disproven talking points. The water needs are great in our state, and in the entire western United States, with even the state of Nebraska asserting it will come for our water. We cannot afford to ignore these challenges or just hope that they simply correct themselves. We need leadership rooted in facts and reality, not fear and hyperbole.

Bill Owens served as Colorado’s 40th governor from 1999 to 2007.