As Colorado’s prime water-law enforcer, Kevin Rein has been a key adviser in a number of the state’s prickliest water debates. Now, he’s able to let one other individual take the helm.
Rein, 64, will retire this month after spending greater than six years of his 43-year profession within the function of state engineer, the place he labored to make sure important water sources stream to Coloradans, individuals in 19 downstream states and Mexico.
“It’s very formidable to suppose that my life will change, and I can’t be so engaged in these necessary points,” Rein mentioned. “It is a huge job, and I do it with lots of ardour. … To cease doing that may be a little scary as a result of life will change.”
His retirement would require a top-level transition amongst Colorado’s water leaders at the same time as they grapple with interstate negotiations concerning the basin’s future and plan methods to fulfill authorized water-sharing obligations in a drier future. Those that have labored with him (and in opposition to him in court docket) all agreed on one factor: Rein takes the time to listen to individuals out and to search for center floor — they usually hoped the subsequent state engineer will do the identical.
“I believe coming down with a tough hand just isn’t a great strategy with water customers,” mentioned Erin Mild, one among Colorado’s seven division engineers who work beneath Rein. “It’s discovering win-win options. I see that strategy with Kevin, and it’s the strategy I take.”
Rein heads the Division of Water Assets, a part of the Division of Pure Assets, the place a contingent of engineers deal with the nitty-gritty, technical particulars of water distribution. He and his group are on the bottom every day, finishing up the insurance policies put forth by Colorado River negotiators, legislators and state businesses. They’re unfold across the state and function native officers on how the water in streams and ditches is shared amongst farmers, cities, recreators, industries and ecosystems.
In his function as state engineer, Rein has weighed in on the whole lot from anti-speculation efforts to the Nebraska-Colorado canal struggle. He has been a go-to adviser in statewide conversations concerning the Colorado River Basin, which has been on the point of a disaster since 2020.
When the regulation isn’t clear on methods to deal with a few of at present’s water challenges, Rein works with different businesses, just like the legal professional common’s workplace, to attempt to clear up the grey areas.
If water customers, like farmers or cities, wish to change their water rights ultimately — to preserve water with out impacting their water rights, for instance — can they really do what they need beneath state regulation? When ought to a river be declared over-appropriated as a result of extra individuals have authorized rights to water than the river can really assist?
“In Colorado, there are lots of of us which might be all the time trying over the state engineer’s shoulder on what he’s doing. Water is an enormous enterprise, it’s essential, and it’s very aggressive,” mentioned Steve Wolff, common supervisor of the Southwestern Water Conservation District. “(Rein) may be very far more within the public eye, I consider, than lots of different Western states. I believe he’s managed that very, very properly.”
Leaving in the course of the controversy
Rein is leaving as Colorado and the six different U.S. states within the Colorado River Basin are negotiating the foundations that may govern how the basin’s greatest reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell, will function after 2026 and for years to return. Colorado’s mountain snowpack is the largest water contributor to the Colorado River and the remainder of the basin.
Colorado water customers additionally don’t know precisely how a lot water finally ends up going the place. Rein and his group have been working with elements of the state to arrange measurement guidelines, however they’re up in opposition to an issue that has been perpetuated for over 125 years, Mild mentioned.
Up to now, shut measurement wasn’t as important as a result of there was sufficient water to go round. Because the water provide will get tighter due to local weather change, the state must determine how measurement must be accomplished statewide, Mild mentioned.
One other key situation: If Colorado ever has to chop its water use to adjust to its authorized obligations to ship water right down to Arizona, California and Nevada, the Decrease Basin states within the Colorado River Basin, how would the state engineer know the place to tug the water from in Colorado — particularly when the state’s water isn’t being intently and persistently measured but?
“The following state engineer has to find out how far they wish to go together with these guidelines,” Mild mentioned.
Gov. Jared Polis will appoint the subsequent state engineer in 2024, and within the interim, the Division of Water Assets shall be run by an appearing director.
Rein mentioned he spent the previous 12 months ensuring that the division’s workers was able to take over. He picked a time when he wasn’t leaving any water customers who had been working with him in a nasty place and when he might hand off his work on water court docket circumstances and different initiatives to his group.
“These are such necessary points that it’s a privilege for me to be concerned at such … an necessary degree,” Rein mentioned. “However I additionally respect that that’s going to be the case at any time when I retire.”
Looking for center floor
Rein has chosen to deal with sticky conditions the place water wants battle by listening to each individual’s perspective looking for widespread floor. Not each state engineer does the identical: Others have been extra inclined at hand down the regulation with a “my manner or the freeway” strategy, a number of individuals mentioned.
Rein, in a phrase, is accessible, a number of individuals mentioned. He’s recognized to hop on a name to assist with a query and to drive to satisfy with individuals in each nook of the state.
“You wouldn’t really feel dumb going to him with a dumb query,” mentioned Kate Ryan, who labored with Rein as a water legal professional and as government director of Colorado Water Belief. “You’d know he would take it critically; you’d know he’d provide you with a good reply; and also you’d know that he would recognize being requested. That’s sort of an enormous factor.”
A part of Rein’s diplomatic strategy to the job needed to do with being a great public servant for everybody in Colorado, mentioned his predecessor, Dick Wolfe, who supervised Rein for a few years.
“He’s very empathetic. He actually understood and sensed the place individuals are coming from and the challenges that that they had,” he mentioned.
Rein was additionally an apostle of effectivity, which is perhaps the engineer in him, Wolfe mentioned. Having troublesome conversations up entrance is one other approach to be environment friendly — in any case, it will possibly assist head off decadeslong, thorny authorized battles that take up extra money and time.
“The power is he was keen to pay attention. The problem is typically there simply wasn’t, or isn’t, center floor among the many stakeholders,” water legal professional Peter Nichols mentioned. Regardless of disagreements over water points in court docket, he and Rein have change into mates who often mountain bike collectively or share a glass of high-quality scotch, like Macallen 12.
“He was cautious about getting into one thing with out being certain that he had the assist to take action,” Nichols mentioned.
With workers, Rein made certain he knew everybody on his group, Mild mentioned. If he noticed a water commissioner within the grocery retailer, he’d know their title. Or, if for some cause he didn’t acknowledge somebody — which did occur as soon as in Mild’s district — he’d name twice to apologize, she mentioned.
“That’s Kevin, proper? Different individuals could haven’t even thought twice that they’ll’t bear in mind 200-something water commissioners,” she mentioned. “I’ve additionally heard from the water commissioners how a lot they’ve favored that — the truth that they’re an individual to him.”
On Dec. 31, Rein, a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair that has a contact extra salt, will conclude a four-decade profession as an engineer in Colorado that began with a bachelor’s diploma in civil engineering from Colorado State College.
“I’ve a spouse of 38 years that, too typically, I’ve needed to say, ‘Effectively, let’s strive that subsequent 12 months,’ or ‘Let’s see if we are able to try this subsequent weekend,’” Rein mentioned. “We’re a really tight household, and we do so much collectively. Too many instances I’ve needed to say this doesn’t work for me.”
He’s able to spend extra time with household, though he could keep concerned within the water group, he mentioned. If his household has its manner, the web will catch onto Rein’s Instagram hashtag, #melanzanagrandpa, and make him an influencer, he joked.
Trying again over an extended profession, Rein mentioned it has been satisfying to be a part of a 250-person group the place individuals do their jobs and do them properly. However what’s going to he miss most?
“This sounds so cliche however … making the distinction within the lives of our water customers,” Rein mentioned. “I believe it’s very satisfying to say we’re doing good water administration.”
