Webinars & Talks

Aired July 9, 2026
12:00-1:00 pm

During this webinar, join Colorado Water Trust and Water Education Colorado to discuss how water moves throughout the state. We’ll learn some water rights basics — including some of the tools used to keep rivers flowing in dry years. Then we’ll focus on some of Colorado Water Trust’s important on-the-ground projects, including work in the Yampa River Basin, with updates on their impact this summer.

With speakers:

Holly Kirkpatrick, Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, Public Information and External Affairs Manager
Kate Ryan, Colorado Water Trust, Executive Director
Danielle Snyder, Colorado Water Trust, Water Resources Specialist

Aired May 5, 2026

In May 2024, Colorado became the first state in the nation to enact legislation in response to the significant reduction in the scope of federal ecosystem protection resulting from the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision. Through that legislation and a brand new regulation adopted by the Water Quality Control Commission, the Water Quality Control Division is now regulating the discharge of dredged and fill material into “state waters” that are not “waters of the United States” through its own program, which borrows heavily from the longstanding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 404 permitting framework.

Watch this webinar from WEco and the Colorado Water Quality Control Division team for an overview of the state’s new regulatory program, designed to protect our wetlands, streams, lakes, and the ecosystems they support from the impacts of dredge and fill activities related to construction, infrastructure development, mining, and even stream restoration projects.

With speakers:

Kelly Morgan, WQCD, Manager, Clean Water Compliance & Enforcement Section
Annette Quill, WQCD, Senior Policy Advisor

Aired December 16, 2025  

Colorado communities are testing new ways to store water in aquifers as part of a sustainable water portfolio that makes use of groundwater. Watch this webinar to learn about aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) projects and pilots in Colorado, including Greeley’s new Terry Ranch Project, Castle Rock Water’s investigation into ASR to build up its sustainable water supply, and more. We’ll also hear about efforts and upcoming legislation that the Colorado Department of Natural Resources supports as the state seeks primacy from the EPA to create a state-level program to regulate underground injection wells, including ASR wells and projects. 

With speakers:

Kevin Donegan, Colorado Division of Water Resources, Hydrogeology Section Chief
Courtney Hemenway, Hemenway Groundwater Engineering, PE, President
Lauren Moore, Castle Rock Water, Water Resources Manager
Nate Pearson, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Assistant Director of Water Policy
Mike Rigby, Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), Energy Transition Senior Scientist
Representative Lesley Smith, Colorado House of Representatives
Matt Sparacino, Greeley Water, Water Resource Planning and Watershed Program Manager

Aired May 28, 2025 

Explore how Colorado’s water market is shifting. We cover how water rights are bought, sold and traded for different uses; the legal structure that allows for Colorado’s water market; how prices have changed over time; how farmers, cities, environmental interests and others are navigating a shifting water market; and we’ll hear various perspectives on the opportunities and challenges with Colorado’s market.

With speakers:

James Eklund, Taft
Adam Jokerst, WestWater Research
Kate Ryan, Colorado Water Trust
Pat Wells, Northern Water

Aired April 17, 2025 

Get the inside scoop from Jerd Smith, Editor of Fresh Water News, and Shannon Mullane, Colorado River reporter for The Colorado Sun, as they break down the stories shaping water conversations in the West.

Aired February 11, 2025 

This webinar focuses on produced water. We cover some basics about water in the oil and gas industry, learn about new rules focused on reusing that water (which are expected to be adopted in early 2025) — and the negotiations that have surrounded them, hear about the Colorado Produced Water Consortium, and explore opportunities and challenges as the industry and environmentalists look at what it means to stretch freshwater use and to reuse more water. 

With speakers:

Harmony Cummings, the Green House Connection Center

Hope Dalton, Colorado Produced Water Consortium

Josh Kuhn, Conservation Colorado

John Messner, Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission

Grant Tupper, Select Water Solutions