WATER INNOVATION CENTER SLATED FOR NATIONAL WESTERN COMPLEX.

• Author: Best, Allen
• Position: STATE OF THE STATE

Denver Water and Colorado State University expect to have a center for water innovation emerge from the ground by 2019 at the soon-to-be-redeveloping National Western Complex.

Need drove this partnership. Denver Water needed a new water quality laboratory, but Denver Water CEO Jim Lochhead thought circumstances deserved something bigger than a mere lab. He defines four pillars: education--because the stock show complex is expected to have a million visitors a year--but also policy, research and innovation. Both Lochhead and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who represents CSU in the initiative, see water innovations leading to private-sector entrepreneurial opportunities.

Colorado faces water quantity and quality challenges. Little water remains to be developed, but the warming climate threatens even existing deliveries to farms and cities. Still, nobody expects water shortages to halt growth. Demographers project today's population of 5.6 million will nearly double by mid-century, putting even greater emphasis on water-sharing agreements between cities and farms.

But quality also matters greatly to Denver Water, which supplies a quarter of all Coloradans. Lochhead stresses the importance of preserving healthy watersheds. Water quality in places Denver gets its water is threatened by forest fires, faulty septic...