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History of the Water Center at Colorado Mesa University

Ute ReservoirsGrand Mesa SnowFen Site

2009: Initial conversations between MCWA and CMU faculty on how to blend MCWA’s public education work with CMU’s scholarly expertise and resources; CMU President Tim Foster gave his approval to the idea.

2010: Expanded vision to include cooperation among the broader community of water experts and stakeholders in the Upper Colorado watershed in Colorado.  April of 2010, assembled fifty water experts from private industry and federal, state and local government agencies to test out the idea of making the Water Center a broad community collaboration; the need for and concept to create a Water Center was well-received. 

2010-2011: An advisory panel evaluated the concept and laid the institutional foundation.  CMU and MCWA jointly hosted and publicized a water tour on Grand Mesa, a seminar series and a "Water 101" course for the public, and a memorandum of understanding between the Mesa County Water Association and Colorado Mesa University formally established the Water Center.

Today: We are continuing to build the Water Center's capacity to fulfill its mission to perform and facilitate interdiscipinary and collaborative research, education, outreach and dialogue to address the water issues facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.

A brief overview of our accomplishments and goals for the upcoming year is available here.