Hi, friends!

I’ll make this quick. We’re in the middle of our SunFest 2024 as I write and just finished listening to a completely compelling conversation on myths about water that we keep repeating. It was a little taste of a project that we launch with this week with a cover story by Luke Runyon from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado.

We kick off the five-story series with Runyon visiting Colorado Springs to find out whether growing cities are contributing to the scarcity of water in the West in an outsized way. Turns out it’s not as simple as counting rooftops.

(If you missed SunFest, you can catch excerpts from some sessions in our Daily Sun-Up podcast and full recordings of certain sessions will be posted on our YouTube channel.)

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A sign pointing out a group of very low water use plants in Colorado Springs Utilities demonstration garden Sept. 11. A punishing drought in 2002 reframed the way the community saw its reliance on the shrinking Colorado River. (Luke Runyon, The Water Desk)

Water issues in the West can be complex. Many Coloradans know that water scarcity is a core issue in their community, but the nuance is hard to grasp. Our region’s water scarcity can feel so existential that tantalizingly simple solutions capture the public imagination. Often readers show up with these ideas — some more hare-brained than others — in my email inbox after I’ve filed a story.

Just to give you a sense: I’ve received so many messages about the promise and potential of a cross-country water pipeline I’ve lost count. The idea that growing Western cities will obviously need a lot more water goes without question. I hear “use it or lose it” nearly every week without the necessary caveats about how just how hard it is to lose a water right.

I rounded up a group of Colorado beat reporters to take a closer look at some of these stubborn water myths. We’re bringing to you a series of stories looking at some of these ideas. Over the next week journalists from The Colorado Sun, KUNC, Aspen Journalism, Fresh Water News and The Water Desk will break down these concepts, and make them easy to understand.

To kick things off, I went to Colorado Springs to understand how many arid Western communities have been able to grow at a rapid pace while reining in their water use.

READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE

^lukerunyon^1

Nature is the bread and butter of our team of photojournalists. Here are a few of our favorite recent images, capturing the nature of people and the nature of the world.

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Mike Frazier pulls on the rope with others to haul up dirt out of a mine shaft in Leadville on Sept. 22. (Rebecca Slezak, Special to The Colorado Sun)
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The Bureau of Reclamation’s Paradox Valley Unit along the Dolores River near Bedrock on Sept. 24. The unit extracts naturally occurring briny groundwater to keep it from over-salting the Dolores River. (Corey Robinson, Special to The Colorado Sun)
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Ghana Frances, left, and Rosie “Squeaky” Kenny burst into laughter as they draw each other without looking Sept. 17 during a community art project led by Denver-based artist Emma Balder at Saint Francis Apartments at Cathedral Square in Denver. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)
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A severe wind storm in 2022 knocked down over 800 acres of trees in a portion of the San Isabel National Forest south of Cuchara, forcing forest managers to close access to the popular Trinchera Road trail for over two years. The area was reopened in a limited capacity Aug. 1 to hikers and ATVs. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Brandt Thibodeaux, land manager and winemaker, at Paonia-based Aquila Cellars. (Via @aquilacellars on Instagram)]*

At this point, our local wine shop knows my wife’s and my tastes well. So they knew exactly what they were doing when they brought Paonia-based Aquila Cellars’ Vernal into our lives.

It started as a simple recommendation, but it’s become so much more. Friend is hosting a Shabbat dinner? Vernal. Sunday dinner to try that farmers market chicken I’d been eyeing for weeks? Vernal. Random Tuesday night? Vernal.

The wine is 90% malbec and 10% pinot noir, and only costs $27. The winery focuses on uncommon grape varietals, and organic and biodynamic farming. At least, that’s what Boulder Wine Merchant says. I’ll be honest, I can’t speak wine — I just know that if someone describes a wine as “funky” then I’m going to like it. So here’s how Aquila Cellars describes it:

#“The earliest, freshest red we have ever released … Vernal, the essence of spring, youthful. It might remind you of red vinho verde if you’ve ever had one. The little dip/partial carbonic method on the estate-grown malbec with an early harvest pick gives us juicy red and black candied fruits, a flowery nose and light tannins … an addition of 10% pinot noir from up valley aged in neutral oak softens the carbonic edges and lifts the aromatics. It’s a summer sipper now but look to age a few bottles in a dark place. It’s got tons of energy to give it longevity!”#

To me, it’s the perfect thing to sip on as fall creeps in — and it’s a crowd-pleaser if our friends are to be believed.

So if you’re willing to dip your toes into something different than your Old World wines, give this a shot. Pro tip: Chill it a bit to make it pop.

Meanwhile, I’m going to keep my eyes on Aquila Cellars — and check out their Denver tasting room, The Green Room, when it reopens Oct. 3 following a remodel. (Psst there’s a tasting room in Carbondale, too.)

EXCERPT: Most of author Dave Jilk’s “Epoch” appears in the form of an epic poem, but this prose excerpt offers a glimpse into one aspect of an imagined post-AI world, the “pastoral” segment of humanity in which progress is frowned upon. And it reveals how the dominant AI powers deal with human outliers within that anti-intellectual template.

READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT

THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Jilk understood from the start that this literary project wasn’t for every reader, but he felt it was a book he absolutely had to write. In a wide-ranging Q&A, he goes deep into the form and substance of this unusual approach to the advances of artificial intelligence. Even if the book itself isn’t in your wheelhouse, Jilk’s multifaceted treatment of the subject and his detailed, thoughtful responses make fascinating reading. Here’s a small sample:

SunLit: You’ve written several academic papers on cognitive neuroscience and concerns about AI. What inspired you to address those topics in a completely different way?

Jilk: As I mentioned, the book started out as a poetry project, not an AI project. But as I thought about my plan for the work, I realized that the epic poem format had some advantages over more typical modes of discussing these topics. My views on the big questions about artificial intelligence, such as how it is likely to be built, what is likely to happen after it is built, what we can do to improve our probable outcomes, and how we might assess those outcomes, are not at all mainstream.

READ THE INTERVIEW WITH DAVE JILK

LISTEN TO A PODCAST WITH THE AUTHOR

A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.

Cartoonist Jim Morrissey finds an apt metaphor for the state’s ozone violations in the beloved characters from the classic Charles Schulz comic. (Jim Morrissey, Special to The Colorado Sun)

🌞 What’s the best policy for managing cellphone use in schools? Who knows. But, as Erica Breunlin reports, the state has a pile of grant money to find out.

🌞 Just how much could it cost to fix PERA’s projected solvency problem? Analysts told Brian Eason it could run about $13 billion.

🌞 Colorado had a shockingly normal year of precipitation — but drought is creeping back on the Front Range, Jerd Smith reports.

🌞 A lift-served mountain bike park sounds like a good idea, but not in an area near Conifer, Jefferson County planning commissioners voted. Jason Blevins has the details of their decision.

🌞 There is a bit of art to recycling everywhere. But it’s become literal fine art in Westcliffe. Parker Yamasaki visited a beautiful community effort to do right by the Earth and keep the local landfill open longer.

🌞 Bad news for people age 80 or older who still are skiing: Telluride has pulled the plug on free passes for you. This leaves just two resorts paying tribute to those who are aged, but still have the knees to make the turns.

Thanks for stopping by. We’ll be back here next amazing Colorado Sunday.

— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun

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