Water Legacy Oral History Project
Jointly conducted by the Poudre Heritage Alliance and the Colorado State University Water Resources ArchiveInterviewee: Alan Hamel
Interviewer: Samuel Ebersole, EbersoleMEDIA Videographer: Justin Bregar, JERBCO
Interview date: June 14, 2019
Transcript created by: Trint (trint.com) with edits by Samuel Ebersole and Patricia J. Rettig
Interview funded by: Colorado Water Conservation Board
Abstract: Alan Hamel, retired executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works, discusses his career progression and his involvement on the boards of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. He talks about mentors, impacts of droughts, a strike in 1977, Colorado water law, and changes brought to his field by technology. He emphasizes respect, collaboration, and education.
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Alan Hamel Oral History
Samuel Ebersole [00:00:00] So we're here with Alan Hamel at the Pueblo Riverwalk, the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo. We're about 25 feet away from Alan Hamel
Avenue, and it is June 14th just a little bit after 9:00 a.m. So thank you, Alan, for
participating in this project and we're looking forward to this interview. Let's just start by having you introduce yourself.
Alan Hamel [00:00:30] I'm Alan Hamel. I’m retired from the Board of Water Works after 52 years, 30 years as its Executive Director and had a marvelous career. I love water and the people of water, and I'm still on one water board, the Southeastern Colorado Water
Conservancy District which I've been involved with since the '80s, actually went on the board in '88 and actually was involved in this beautiful Riverwalk. Getting it started and built with a lot of community help. I've been blessed my whole career, my whole life. So its been a great career.
Samuel Ebersole [00:01:20] Great. Let's talk a little bit about who you were growing up in Pueblo and what kind of shaped you in your formative years.
Alan Hamel [00:01:29] Well my parents moved here when I was five. But I born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but I've always been a Puebloan and I always will be a Puebloan. I love this community and went through school here including college, one year away to CSU Fort Collins, but I got my degree here at Southern Colorado State College, now Colorado State University-Pueblo, and my introduction to water was in 1960. I got a summer job, and about all I knew about water at that time is turn the tap on and get a drink, take a shower, flush the toilet, and an occasional swim in the Arkansas River out where Pueblo Dam is. There was a flood thing, we'd go swimming out there. Certainly not at the levels the river is today. But, and I took that job as a summer employee. And 52 years later, I finished just a great career and I started kind of in the middle of the water process. I was that they hired me as a summer relief pump station operator so I didn't know anything about supply, I didn't know anything about treatment at the time. I knew I'd pump that water off the tanks and somehow it got to houses, but it just started multiplying and my interest in water from day one was just...In that process I got my degree and went looking in other places but an opportunity came, I wanted to get off graveyard but, but to take an administrative job with the Board of Water Works and that was in the transmission distribution. And so that kind of shaped me. I didn't really get into the water supply area of water until I took the executive director's position and then I spent a lot of time at that. Was blessed with boards that supported us being involved in things like get to serve almost four terms on CWCB, Water and Power Authority, and some other statewide committees. And I've also been part of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District formally since '88, started attending their meetings in '82. So that's 1982. But that kind of shaped my career and then and I already liked Pueblo but I grew to love Pueblo and and being in public service I just think it's so rewarding and just an exciting career.
Samuel Ebersole [00:04:43] This would come later probably. I'm going to interject it now because it fits I think. So you said you love Pueblo, Pueblo obviously loves you back. And having a street, an avenue name for you is obviously part of an indication of that. Can you tell me how that happened and how you felt when you heard about that?
Alan Hamel [00:05:02] Well actually two things happened on a day, within a week. First the main office for the Water Board was named for me which started this emotional...it was just humbling. And then we were having a community reception, the Board of Water Works
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was for me and the City of Pueblo got involved and I was, they were doing different presentations and all of a sudden the president of the council walked in with a street sign, Alan Hamel, and...the reason in part here again humbling and beautiful people always being said it really needs neon on the sign and flip a lot of names on it, hundreds of 'em, but I was involved in the Riverwalk and economic development and from that they named this street, along the Riverwalk, which I've been involved with since 1991, and so before it was, when it was an idea and a thought so and turned out to be a great asset and there's more plans for the future to expand it so that's kind of how that came about. Again very humbling.
Samuel Ebersole [00:06:28] Well that's a great story. So tell me a little bit more about your work as a...working summers for the Pueblo Water Board as a teenager in the 1960s and how you you described a little bit but how you made that transition then into working for them full time.
Alan Hamel [00:06:44] OK. The first two summers I was part time and but toward the end of that second summer I was going to junior college...at that time a junior college. Now the Pueblo Community College, and have a full time job and my manager said, Why don't you apply for that, I said well if I'm gonna leave to go to CSU-Fort Collins, he said well then take a leave of absence and I did. Then decided just to come back here and go to school and so the following spring I started working full time at the Board of Water Works and started in the pumping, back then the stations weren't automated and we had operators at every site. Eventually then we got a central control unit that still had roving operators. And I became a roving operator while I was still going to college. It took me a little longer to get to school because I was working full time but when I graduated from college a daytime job first started. So I went in to the office of transmission distribution and shortly after that I got a management job. And that career just ended up being the manager of transmission and distribution and then director of operations and then a director. In there for just a little bit, in '66 I went looking for another job, and both in Colorado and out of Colorado and only had one other time when I was a director did I go look outside of Pueblo. It was actually a good friend that we hired to be director of Southeast District, Jim Broderick, was at Tucson Water and the job was actually at Tucson Water. I didn't know him then, and he's from Pueblo but I had never met him until we hired him, and I said no. I love this town to raise my family in and it's been, the Water Board and this community have been so good for our family and our kids. Whole family.
Samuel Ebersole [00:09:09] Super. You mentioned that you continue to serve on the Southeastern Water Conservancy District. Can you tell me anything about your initial term from '88 to '04 and then your return to that?
Alan Hamel [00:09:25] Sure. I actually started attending meetings when I got the director's job in 1982, and then I had a chance to apply and get on the Board in '88, served for 16 years till 2004. Last couple years I was the chair or president and they...gave me a honorary appointment to the Board and I was an advisory board member sitting at the table, couldn't vote. I could be ornery and raise interesting questions but but I also was a good history check. In fact I got a call this morning about history and had failed the tests this morning but...and so that went from 2004 to 2017. And they had a one year
appointment come open. They asked why don't you just apply, you're here. Apply for that one year idea and then we're going through some major planning things at the Southeast District for the future for this great project that serves this basin and they thought I could add a little value. I'll be 80 when I get off the off the Board. But they're keeping an eye on me in case I fail...so but we'll try not to.
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Samuel Ebersole [00:10:55] Can you talk about that big project? Does it have to do with the conduit?
Alan Hamel [00:11:00] Well, there's actually two projects. Conduit is the biggest one. It was part of the original Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, and that's another interesting side note. I learned more, a little bit about supply when I watch President Kennedy drive down Abriendo Boulevard to district 60 stadium in 1992. I was going to college right a few blocks away and so I walked down and then he says, this new trans-mountain project. I was already working in water, so that tweaked my interest on supply and so...But the conduit, which is so critical to the lower basin and the small towns east of Pueblo because of the challenges they have in their municipal systems with quality of water, well it didn't happen back as that project developed and it just was so expensive and it wasn't the right
momentums. And then when Jim Broderick and our president here in 2004 or 5, is Bill Long from down in Las Animas, and they started working hard on the conduit again as did all of us who can add maybe a little value to that project that they've been working they found some funding sources by redirecting some of the excess capacity dollars that would go into the Bureau general fund, they got redirected by the legislature, so that helped to have a little funding source that we're now hopefully but...money's tight in Washington and it's got to come there and we've got methods to raise some locally and so our hope is that within about two years they actually start the first phase. Originally it was going to come from the dam. Now, most likely it's going to come from the end of the Board's water system, water Pueblo water system out east of Pueblo and several of the cities out east are on enforcement orders from the state health department so it's critical that we get high quality water to the lower basin for municipalities, cause it'll go all the way to Lamar. And so that's one of the projects.
The other one we're working on is a very detailed, long-range plan for both finances and projects, what’s the future going to be and how are we going to fund those. And if you really think since the, many of facilities were built back in the 60s, they're ready for improvements, replacements. And we don't want to lose this valuable source of supplemental water to this basin. And so that's another major effort that staff and the Board is going through right now and we're looking at different fees for our water, our fees for water are actually undervalued...but we have to be responsible and recognize that different abilities to pay particularly with agriculture.
Samuel Ebersole [00:14:36] Super. So can you tell me a little bit about being the Roundtable's, Arkansas Basin Roundtable's, first chairman and as well as being representative to the IBCC [Interbasin Compact Committee] during the teens?
Alan Hamel [00:14:51] It was an exciting time. And you know when you visit with Russ George you'll have to talk to him. It was his vision and if you really think about it, I'll try to share how I view what's happened from that. But...he came up with this idea and he's worn a lot of hats but I think he was a director of Department of Natural Resources, he was director of Natural Resources. And they came up with this plan to form the roundtables and IBCC that have a true and meaningful dialogue statewide on how we're going to move forward. And the first meeting was right here at the convention center, right here a block away, a block and a half, and never forget, a lot of invitations to people from out the basin. And here's a general way people sat in that room. Lot of crossed arms, and what's this guy talking about. And he presented this vision and this path forward, and it just been
remarkable to be part of that. I was the first chair and served several years and followed up by Gary Barber and I was one of the early appointments to IBCC. Kind of the same
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thing when they brought us all together from around the state there was a lot of...but it's really been the foundation to where I think Colorado's going today.
A year later or two, Russ can tell you exactly, they added a funding mechanism to create a grant program that would be managed by CWCB [Colorado Water Conservation Board] but had a portion of that going to be determined by each roundtable with CWCB's
approval. And it started giving a way to bring people together, because there was dollars, and to start particularly to help small communities, ditch companies that just didn't have the resources to improve their water systems. And I just got off the roundtable this last fall. Been on it since 2005 and got to see it mature and grow and along the way then, Colorado was one of the few states in the West that didn't have a water plan. So I happened to be at the position of chairing the CWCB when the governor sent an executive order and had always been one of Governor Hickenlooper's goals was to give, create a water plan for Colorado, and a little over two years later and an unbelievable statewide process...total involvement of all interests in water. All state agencies and and water users from around the state. Whether you were in...had environmental interests or recreation interests, ag interests, municipal interests, drew everybody together to come up with Colorado's first water plan, and I think that all evolved out of Russ George and 2005 and the start of the roundtables and IBCC. And they're still viable...a couple tough funding years but hopefully they're working on a permanent source for funding and that could come about indeed, because we need to do something for our future. Want to maintain our quality of life in Colorado to do the things we love, the recreational things, the environment we live in, but we also need to be ready to see our population double in the next 30 or 40 years. So that started with the roundtable. Long answer.
Samuel Ebersole [00:19:25] That's good. Good information. When I think about the water plan, I think about that photo of all of you all who were involved standing on the big map, that picture from overhead.
Alan Hamel [00:19:35] And they shot down? Yeah. Well that was a big day. That was an exciting day for us, and just to be part of that process was an honor. And back to my earlier comment, just all these years I've been surrounded by beautiful people working on special things, and that was a big moment, it was an historic moment for Colorado. That water plan, and it really...the value of it, we know today that the true value will be judged by kids and grandkids or when they have water to drink and recreate on and because it's a critical part of Colorado's future and each community's future.
Samuel Ebersole [00:20:27] That picture you were standing over Pueblo.
Alan Hamel Right.
Samuel Ebersole You remember, who else was...was there anyone else representing
Pueblo or were you it? And then were you representing it as director of the Water Board or former or was it because of your IBCC connection or in what capacity were you chosen?
Alan Hamel [00:20:44] I was a CWCB member then part of that...and those are all CWCB members, and CWCB staff and remember the board also has a group of advisory board members, they were all there. And I really represented the Arkansas Basin. Each board member represents a geographic area along with representing the state. And you look over the San Luis Valley, you'd see Travis Smith. You'd see Russ George over on the Colorado River, main stem. John McClow over on the Gunnison and they tried to position us on that big map for the area we represented and so...and that is one of the...I've been
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blessed to work for a lot of great boards and serve on some very good boards like
Southeast District. But that board, the two terms on it, that board was outstanding and they did great things for, as a board, for Colorado.
Samuel Ebersole [00:21:51] You may have answered this but maybe you have something to add. How did you choose...
Alan Hamel [00:21:55] I might have a senior moment. Think of it differently.
Samuel Ebersole [00:21:59] That's possible. How did you choose to enter your profession? So what led you to your career in water in Colorado?
Alan Hamel [00:22:10] It started by happenstance. I needed a summer job because I wanted to pay for my own college, and my mother worked out at the state hospital. She was a psych tech, and one of the people, a close friend she worked with, says, we're trying to help Alan find a job this summer and her husband was a foreman in the treatment plant. And they sent me down and got me a summer job. It's a program we still have today. It's a summer program and probably 15 or 20 employees at the Water Board today started as...I've never sat down and counted them all over time, but that's how it started. And did I have at that time plan a career in this? No. But that so many interesting things happened and I was fortunate, blessed, at different points to be able to expand my role and...went through some challenging times with culture, changes in technology. So much had
changed since 1960, in water, and the big picture water from water supply to use whether you be a municipality or ag or recreation. One of the programs you're so familiar with is the flow program in the Upper Arkansas. You're seeing more collaboration and corporate, cooperation but that one dates many of the efforts around the state. And so a lot and it just was interesting. It was fun. I was blessed to go every day to work and be excited about it.
Samuel Ebersole [00:24:02] So it truly is an example of starting in the mailroom and making it to the executive suite.
Alan Hamel [00:24:08] Yes. In this case it was a noisy pump station.
Samuel Ebersole [00:24:14] I also was told by someone that interns now, even though the program continues, you probably did a lot more as an intern in the '60s than they are able to do now in terms of hands-on kinds of things...
Alan Hamel [00:24:27] Yea, there there might be a few more limits. Sometimes people put their own limits. But just from safety and and...But we have had programs with like high school people. You have to be real careful with those and they're very limited. But we have people laying pipe still to this day, and it just takes the proper...they go through physicals and safety training and some are doing, you know just landscaping, housekeeping but others as they stay, ‘cause there's an incentive in that program that they get a little more money every year and if they complete their program for a whole summer they can get a bonus at the end of the summer. And so some of them work five, six years and get a college degree and say, well I might stick around a little while, like I did.
Samuel Ebersole [00:25:39] A little while. In your career who did you look for for leadership and as a mentor or a role model?
Alan Hamel [00:25:49] Oh my gosh. We could be here for an hour or more and I'd probably miss some of them. The first person I've worked indirectly for, there was an
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assistant foreman and a foreman, and the foreman was a great work role model.
Unfortunately the assistant foreman I recognized is the things you don't want to do. So it started there and then along the way I got to work at the Water Board for different people that were real role models. And then when I ventured out into the state and on the
Southeast District, got to work with people like Tommy Thomson, Ray Nixon, Ralph
Adkins. One of the original members of the Southeast District Board and real active person to get the Fry-Ark passed was a farmer from out at Swink named Frank Milenski. He
taught me a whole different world that...here's this...called me a city guy, taught me about farming and why us city folk didn't understand the importance of water, it was farmers who really understood the lifeblood. And then as I went around the state they were just then different people that are role models. And any one of those you interviewed are good role models, having worked beside them. But when I was young it was people...Tommy
Thompson was one of those, and he had a great career in water and and whether it be in the water in the West or in Washington, D.C. He just was an unbelievable...his energy and that rubs off on you. You know get up early in the morning and determine what your day's going to be. And so just...and at the Water Board I could just list you probably 10 or 12 board members I've worked for that are true role models. I mean that even as I got older and even to this day some are younger than me I think they’re still good role models. And so and they took the Water Board through very tough times and had the strength to stand up to want to make change and make a difference. And we were able to change the culture at the Water Board. But that took people that...it's all based on respect and...so I could just sit and talk about people all morning but. And that's a little bit what I've loved doing the last few years, is trying to give back to young people and their knowledge because Colorado really needs young people to step up and and I see a whole group in this basin and in the state that are doing that, makes me feel good for our future...and when you talk to Russ George or Eric Wilkinson or Travis Smith, John McClow, all the ones you're...you have interviewed or you will interview, they're helping young people too and and there's been a change on the State Water Board, the governor's decided to appoint some younger people, which is so good because it brings people with more energy.
Samuel Ebersole [00:29:52] What do you feel was your greatest accomplishment and why?
Alan Hamel [00:29:56] Oh. Greatest accomplishment. I've been part of so many exciting things. And this one may surprise you. Been able to work with the board, the leadership team at the Water Board, the union leadership at the Water Board, and change the culture. And the result is, Pueblo's got a great water system in part because we changed the
culture...respecting ourselves, each employee, our leadership, in return them respecting the employees and then importantly the number one, our customers, and changing that culture. We at one point had the longest public entity labor strike. Thirteen of us ran the Water Board for 42 days. And the culture was at a low. And we took it to what it is today and and I think negotiations instead of taking a year take four hours and so. But, it's all about benefiting the citizens, your customers. That was probably the biggest thing, but I've worked on some great intergovernmental agreements. I've worked on some water
acquisitions, a major one as I left that had a whole new character to it than some we did early. And that's when we acquired the 27-28 percent of the Bessemer Ditch here but that it's a whole different approach because it's a shared use approach. And so those are some of the changes you see. But so being part of the state water plan when I was on the state Water Board I mean I'll always remember that. Being, some big projects we did at the Water Board on treatment and that, I'll remember, but the number one, probably the cultural change at the Water Board.
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Samuel Ebersole [00:32:28] Well in fact that's not a surprise to me because I have a question here. I was going to have you tell me...tell us about the labor strikes in the 1970s and your role in repairing the rift between labor and management. If you answered that sufficiently we can let that stand or if you have more to add to that.
Alan Hamel [00:32:47] You were doing a lot of research.
Samuel Ebersole [00:32:49] I talked to the right people. People know you.
Alan Hamel [00:32:51] And the strike was actually in '67 we had another short one before it that lasted about 12 hours but...actually it was '77, did I say '67? Senior moment.
They...when I got the director's job, I was an, I was a very by then dedicated to Pueblo and the Water Board, that coming into a leadership position I was able to start just doing little things, trying to influence communication and that...There were still some challenging times in the '90s, I mean the '80s. Then early in the '90s we kind of said enough’s enough, we gotta make a major change, and so we did a a real tough...brought in an outside person, and did a real intricate internal look at ourselves from the board to the employees and we, and they actually interviewed every employee that would be interviewed,
confidentially, and then they wrote, why were people frustrated, whether it be the board or an entry-level employee or me or...and we formed a plan, and changed our mission
statement. We formed a plan and the board was heavily involved in it. And decided that we shouldn't leave everything to when you negotiate, you should do things continually
throughout the year. But to test it, they put six of us, three from the union, three from management, different levels of management, in a room and gave us the main problem. And they said you solve it and don't come back to work until you have a joint thing that you're gonna go present to the board first and all the employees. And that was the start. And we changed the whole method. We did business. We have ongoing committees that discuss problems and so it was an exciting thing to be part of. And then just seeing the results. And they're still doing things and working hard to maintain it. And so I wish them well because it's made all the difference in the world. A lot more smiles at work in the morning.
Samuel Ebersole [00:35:58] You remember what that problem was that you were tasked with?
Alan Hamel [00:36:00] There was actually a pretty big laundry list, but the top one was pension. And, we came up with this formula where we'd form a pension board that was made up of three union, three management. And they'd have to bring consensus
recommendations to me, and then together we'd take them to the board. And that model then turned over to work on other important things: communications, safety, benefits. We had these different groups that followed that model, and we worked on them year round. And then salaries was handled in a different, but we came up with formulas that...and didn't use the old methodology, we want 25 percent, no, we want to give you a one and which had no basis in fact. So, what we did. They still have all those committees, started newsletters...oh, roundtables. The director meets with a group of employees every month that rotate. And there's a union leadership person there. The director, the H.R. director, public affairs director. But everybody else rotates and they don't have to come. But every department gets to have one of their employees come to one or two meetings every year. And a day after a board meeting we met. And spent two to two and a half hours together talking about what are the good things happening, what are some challenges? What are
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the things we need to work on to better serve our customers? Also, be where we have smiles on our faces when we're working.
Samuel Ebersole [00:38:12] Great. You won the Aspinall Water Leader of the Year Award in 2010. I understand you were surprised, they surprised you bringing your family out and so forth. Can you tell me about that experience and what do you suppose they were awarding that on the basis of at that point?
Alan Hamel [00:38:33] Surprise is an understatement. I was breath taken. Sometimes when something like that happens, I lack for great words to say but I start talking. On an occasion at a public thing I've seen my wife go like this but it was a, it was a true honor. I mean just sit there and look at the people in the room that already were honorees. And to think about them making the selection as we do today for all the new ones and that
just...and I knew other awardees like Frank Milenski and those who have been my
mentors, Ray Nixon, and and it just meant so much. Why? Surrounded by beautiful people and the opportunity to work in a lot of areas both locally and at the state level. And always trying to be collaborative.
Samuel Ebersole [00:40:02] Speaking of collaboration. You've been described as a statesman in the full sense of the word someone who...
Alan Hamel [00:40:11] Pardon, I couldn't quite hear...
Samuel Ebersole [00:40:13] You've been described as a statesman in the true sense of the word, someone who genuinely and sincerely respects others at the table. How did that become part of your persona?
Alan Hamel [00:40:29] I think you have to go back to how you were raised. Respect was an important part of my upbringing. I think though when you're young, I think I got away from that a little for a short period of time. When you're in tough situations, particularly dealing at the time with the union. But refocused on...I think it’s a good basis. Deal with the facts, don't deal with the the people, don't ever make it personal. Just deal with the facts and see what common end goals that benefit, whether it's one party or seven parties, because we'd work on a lot of intergovernmental agreements, complex ones. If you always, kind of leave the personalities at the door. And over time just some degree you can gain respect even with some of the most, people that are frustrated with you and you're frustrated with them. And always the goal at the end is to get to what the end goal was. And then at the able, the next day, to walk up to a person, smile, shake their hand and move on with life. Maybe you won't be the best of friends. But. But always have respect and understand, from what perspective they're coming from.
Samuel Ebersole [00:42:24] Great. I asked you what was your greatest success. Now I'm going to ask you what was your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?
Alan Hamel [00:42:31] Well can I be kind of cute for a minute?
Samuel Ebersole [00:42:34] Sure.
Alan Hamel [00:42:37] And it's a failure that I'll never forget. I don't think I was close to getting fired. But my board was really upset with me. I was director, and we were building the new office building down there on Grand. And we were replacing a very old, antiquated office that was right next door. And came up with this great idea. We always use vital blue
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for water and all this terms, I said, wonder what a blue building would look like? And we found this blue brick. Then architects renderings...I brought that into the boardroom, put that thing up and the board president looked at me, and said, Hamel, you have got to be kidding me. Where's your head been? And all the board members were going like this. End of presentation. Fold that thing down. I said, I'll have a new rendering here within two weeks. They were mad.
Samuel Ebersole [00:43:52] Really?
Alan Hamel [00:43:53] Yeah. It's kind of a strange thing. But there are others both at the Water Board and during the troubled times when you weren't successful with personnel things can be considered, I thought failures. Early in my director's career, we had an opportunity to buy 27,000 acre-feet of storage in Turquoise Reservoir, and I got real conservative, I'm just learning, and maybe it's the most we could have afforded but I didn't explore hard enough. We should of at least bought ten and then when I look back just a few years later I said, you weren't thinking, you weren't thinking big enough. So that always bothered me a bit. I had an intergovernmental agreement I worked real hard on, Southeast District when I was president, and the first time we we took it to the board, it went down, and it was a close vote but it went down. It was an intergovernmental agreement between the Southeast District and Aurora. And uh, but I didn't give up and there were others. I formed a different plan, got different people involved. Some that were against it, found that's always a good thing. Get them involved. And the second time we brought it back we got an agreement. Kind of a 40 year truce on exports of water out of the Arkansas basin and so I always considered that a bit of a failure. I'm sure there's others. If you're making decisions and don't fail occasionally you're probably not working hard enough.
Samuel Ebersole [00:45:56] So I think we covered the the labor management issues well enough. Was there any...were there any other sources of opposition that you encountered in your years working in water that are notable?
Alan Hamel [00:46:09] Well I I mention the Aurora agreement. Certainly I had different small things that happened where where you dealt with opposition. A major one, it began when I was president of the Southeast District, was when we were working on the
expansion of Pueblo Reservoir and preferred storage option plan. We had looked at 35 or 40 sites in the basin, and we came up with the best alternative in phase one was to
expand Pueblo Reservoir by 70,000 acre-feet, and we worked hard to get everybody on the same page, including working with the Colorado River District and West Slope interests, and we got consensus there. But we never got consensus with the Lower [Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy] District. Jay Winner was new to water and new to the District, following the direction of his board. But they were, I think, swayed in their thinking by Bob Rawlings, who turned out to be an opponent of the preferred storage option plan, even though it would bring great benefit to agriculture, municipalities, Pueblo. But his view, and I don't want to disrespect all the good things that he's done for our community in his lifetime, but on that issue...my perspective, was that he was clouded by the fact that Colorado Springs, even though they were a project signatory for the
Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, had been with it since originally, and Aurora which really had a minor interest in the expansion or almost no interest. And he lobbied against it, and we were crossing the capitol steps in Washington for the last major committee and from there we would have, in our opinion, been successful, and about halfway across...the open area there, whatever they call it...the rotunda, yes, that's the word, and Ray Kogovsek gets a phone call, he was then our lobbyist, Congressman Kogovsek, he got a phone call says,
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there's no need to come. If you and the basin can't agree on what you want, there's no need to come...we won't...if you're all together, we have the support to get it done, but you're not, and it ended. And that was a major disappointment, and if you think of a big water year like 1999 we would have filled that 70,000 acre-feet. We would have filled it in 2011. And for sure we'd have filled it this year. And then if you think of '99 it was followed by the 2002 drought, an additional 70,000 acre-feet of water had done great things for municipalities and agriculture. And so that need for storage is still there. For our basin and really for the state.
Samuel Ebersole [00:50:22] Great. This is kind of related. What is your take on the current state of East Slope-West Slope negotiations over water?
Alan Hamel [00:50:34] Not an easy question. And I'm sure you'll be asking Russ and the different people over on the West Slope...is John McClow on your list to interview?
Samuel Ebersole [00:50:45] Not currently but he may be added.
Alan Hamel [00:50:49] He's the most recent Aspinall awardee and the reason I would suggest is he's done a lot of work on East Slope-West Slope collaboration and a lot of work for Colorado and the Colorado River. So just just a suggestion to include that...to include him possibly. And once you call him you can thank me for for getting him into this. But he's just...he's so knowledgeable. And I think it is better then it's been, and you could see that in the development of the Colorado Water Plan. And I think uh, there's definitely hope. I don't, I don't think we're done working on relationships. I think you have to continue on both sides to work together, to find areas of consensus. And to move our great state forward because it's going to be critical. While trying to protect all the values on East Slope-West Slope we all value so. With all the good people involved in water it seems like we should be able to do that.
Samuel Ebersole [00:52:27] What significant weather events can you recall that had a real effect on your job and your your work as Pueblo water director?
Alan Hamel [00:52:38] Well, some were before I got the director's job, and one in particular that I can't, I'm not even attempt to pick the year, should remember it but.
Probably as a director, the drought of 2002 was a wakeup call. We were managing, I'll call it very conservatively, on stored water. We weren't filling all our storage space because we were pinching pennies almost. We don't do that anymore. Storage is your insurance policy. It's it's your rainy day fund. And I was bold enough in 2002 early when we recognized we had a drought, and made one of my dumbest public statements ever...that Pueblo was drought proof. Well later that year we implemented restrictions, and if we'd have managed differently we could have avoided that, by just keeping storage full all the time. And of course we weren't the only ones that learned that. But...and when our water resource manager was Bud O'Hara and our water engineer and water resource lead person...not engineer...came into my office, Alan Ward, and said our 1874 water rights have just been called out. They had never been called out. Wow. How many days are they gonna be out? They said probably six weeks. And I went...my gosh the Arkansas River basically dried up below Pueblo. And we had just finally after 30 years completed the connection to the municipal outlet at the dam. And there was a godsend and a savior because we could start bringing water directly because we were...the quality and the water we lost from the dam down to our river intakes was horrible and so that certainly was a wakeup call that...it can't be too conservative at times in your your thought. One was a winter storm when I was division manager of transmission and distribution. And we stayed at subzero, down in the
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14 or 15 degrees below zero for about a week or week and a half, and we ended up with three major wooden main failures. We still had wooden mains. One totaled a house and a car, and blocks of ice on the street. Cars frozen in. We had over a thousand service lines frozen in Pueblo. So that year I'll always remember...just not the date.
Samuel Ebersole [00:56:15] Do you remember the flood of '65, was that an event that ....
Alan Hamel [00:56:20] I was just doing my pump station thing and on the Arkansas, I think we had to shut down some of our river intakes and, but of course did a lot of damage on the Fountain side but I wasn't...I was just in my own little world...pump stations at that time. But definitely had an impact and shows you the value of Pueblo Reservoir, because it came on line in '75. And that's just one of those important secondary benefits that people don't always think of...the secondary benefits, water supply was number one, but flood control and then recreation has been a, you know it’s a number one recreational spot from the State Parks perspective in Colorado, and so having that there as a buffer, they now never let more than 6,000 CFS through the dam because it starts flooding in Avondale and down in La Junta. So it just shows another value of reservoirs.
Samuel Ebersole [00:57:52] What state or federal legislation has had the greatest impact on your career?
Alan Hamel [00:57:59] What state or federal legislation? Seems that state...state more federal, than state because it passed down to the state by state...and not necessarily legislation but just regulation is the water quality changes that we treat to. Major major changes as technology improves and you know smaller parts. I think we were looking at parts per million when I started and now it's parts per trillion and you can find more
different constituents in the water that can be classed as harmful. And so that that's been a major challenge over the years on the water treatment side. Certainly in field operations, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] requirements and that have changed. Colorado water law has been tweaked over time but thank goodness we've protected the basic underlying principles of the priority system. And I know some would like to...extremes would like to throw that out which would be a disaster for Colorado. But, so it gets tweaked, so you have to make adjustments. I think water rights court cases are...have always been pretty technical, very emotional, but they haven't gotten easier, and the courts of course are trying to move them faster today. And so you saw those changes over time. I was trying to think of one major piece of federal legislation it's not coming to me but there has been change from...that we all deal with, just, for instance, driving license requirements for your bigger equipment, truck driving CDL requirements have changed, got more challenging. And of course certain things in employment practices.
It was changed by a vote of the people to legalize marijuana and the challenge that brings to businesses in the construction field with your drug and alcohol testing, you know with either your CDL licenses or even in general requirements you have with treatment operators and random testing. It's been a new new challenge because of the residual effect of marijuana. So.
Samuel Ebersole [01:01:28] I know folks struggling with that same issue hiring folks. This something you made reference to just a little bit ago. What are your thoughts on how western water law, the Colorado doctrine of prior appropriation, how has that impacted the modernization of our water management systems? In other words has it kept up with modern ways that we distribute water and use water.
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Alan Hamel [01:01:59] I believe it has. It's flexible enough to do the things we need to do and with a lot of thought legislatively to do tweaks...and I think of the alternative ag
programs that you've interviewed people on, leasing fallowing...that that required at least some pilot programs to get some legislation done using the prior appropriation system as the basis and we're able to come up with ways and state Water Board manages a couple of those, but to look at how we might share our valuable resource, finite resource of water, better in the future with programs like leasing fallowing and we're able to tweak it. I think that shows a change that's needed in the future. And it will need tweaking, but I think that it has served us well.
Samuel Ebersole [01:03:12] Kind of related. So since water is both public and private, do you think it's undervalued, and what should we do about that?
Alan Hamel [01:03:26] Certainly the value of water has gone up, and it's because it's finite. And as the demands grow, one of the things that I mentioned Southeast District and its long range plan and looking at changing rates...we've stabilized rates, held rates stable for too long. You need to adjust those to recognize the change in time and the value of water. But you try to acquire certain types of water rights that they're totally changed in value, so I think that the value is just a supply and demand thing and it's adjusted over time and and we're going to have to find better ways to share it as we go forward.
Samuel Ebersole [01:04:29] What big changes over the course of your career affected how you did your job and those can be changes in technology, changes in public
perceptions and attitudes, legislative which we kind of talked about a little bit...
Alan Hamel [01:04:43] A lot of things. Technology. I mean from one we mentioned that ran a pump station. Those are all controlled by a computer monitored by a by a central operator that, I mean you could actually put treatment plants on full automation. You wouldn't do that because of the public health aspect and security reasons you're going to keep people there. But you can remotely manage it which has other safety concerns from outside people trying to hack in. But that's why you keep people there. But...so it
changes...I think the public need for communication has changed. I think the public wants to better understand how you're investing in the case of water in many cases is the rates. If you're getting ready to build a big community project like the Riverwalk, they want to know how their dollars are gonna be invested. If you're using public money and of course a lot of private money has gone into this project. But so I think that that has been a change. I think to change on seeking collaboration has changed because you’ve got a need. You can't be totally independent. You can't just...whether you're a water district or a farmer. And it's been hard particularly for all of us but I think even more struggling just because how they were raised and their independence in agriculture. They're very independent, and they had to be to do what they do. But I think that's been a change. So you had change in how you communicate and collaborate. There have been financial challenges and changes with the economies in every city and when you talk from a municipal standpoint, it's different. Pueblo has a lower per capita income and so there's more challenges there, and you've had to adjust to those in your rates, in your approach to what you can finance and what's not realistic or how you go about it. You have to have some great finance people today to ensure we're going to provide the service we need in the future.
Samuel Ebersole [01:07:48] What professional organizations or activities did you find most valuable during your career?
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Alan Hamel [01:07:55] There's been a bunch of. I think being engaged or involved on things like CWCB, Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District. I was a lifelong member of the American Water Works Association. And I'm gonna leave some out just sure as heck. But being engaged in professional associations brings so much value to to yourself personally but to your career but to the organization you work for. So education training, you have to constantly educate. So some of the organizations, Colorado Water Congress, you know, a great organization if you're in water in Colorado. It needs to be part of your organization being involved in it. And so every chance you get, either you yourself or some of your fellow employees need to be involved to bring that knowledge back to learn...and just attending certain types of high quality conferences and seminars are so important. I got involved in some executive leadership institutes, and it just brings new knowledge not only you personally but that you can bring back to your organization.
Samuel Ebersole [01:09:38] What...is there a particular stream or body of water that you feel most connected to, and why?
Alan Hamel [01:09:44] Arkansas River. It's been part of my life right from when I was in my teens, swimming in it, and now it's our pipeline to bring our supplies to Pueblo, and so connected. It's also a fun place occasionally to do a little fly fishing. Particularly in up with our neighbors, up towards Salida and up that way so. But, the Arkansas River.
Samuel Ebersole [01:10:19] What do you want future generations to know about you and the organizations that you've represented?
Alan Hamel [01:10:26] To appreciate the value of water, and I hope, that I've truly been a collaborator and always respectful, and at times I might have drifted away from respect I hope I apologized. I think that we need to learn from past generations, those mentors I had, and I hope someday someone would say well, Alan Hamel was a good mentor.
Samuel Ebersole [01:11:04] And kind of related...what advice do you have for present and future generations of Colorado water professionals?
Alan Hamel [01:11:14] Be involved. Never give up an opportunity to learn. At 77 I'm still learning...ventured out in a different thing, not anything to do with water this last year and a half, then involved in the mayoral race in Pueblo. So that took a great giant leap, waterman out of water, and it felt like at times I was in a desert without a canteen...but, so reach out. The other thing and I think this is just true in life...I think every day you have the
opportunity to control what kind of day you're going to have. And if you want it to be a bad day, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a bad day. If you decide that you want it to be a good day, then there may be some frustrating things that happen, but it could turn into a great day. But how you start the day and how you approach a project, how you go into your position, whatever it may be at whatever level in whatever organization, just go in that day and say I want to add a little bit of value today. And then the end of the day reflect back and say, did I add a little value?
Samuel Ebersole [01:12:48] Getting near to the end here. What advice do you have for future generations of Coloradans, residents, who want to be more responsible users of this precious resource?
Alan Hamel [01:13:01] Well, certainly we should respect from a conservation standpoint. We need to conserve water. I think that we need to support wisely, new projects,
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storage. It's critical. So I think citizens need to think about how do we make that happen and not just very narrowly and they need to be multipurpose projects, but you need to think about things we put in water. How we design facilities, how we treat wastewater, how we when we're fishin' don't throw stuff in the water, it just...pick up your trash. Take care of this beautiful state of ours. When it comes to water, respect that we need high quality water and I think...figure out how we can work together and work with our neighbors to make a difference in our future on water.
Samuel Ebersole [01:14:29] Is there anything I didn't ask you that you were hoping to talk about or that you wanted to talk more about?
Alan Hamel [01:14:34] I hope I haven't talked too much...
Samuel Ebersole [01:14:39] Not at all. Did I give you enough time to talk about HARP [Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo]?
Alan Hamel [01:14:47] I don't know if ...it's one of my dear things to me, this Riverwalk. It's probably the best example of public-private partnership I can think of. And it started with, well in the late 80s, Pueblo Conservancy District started doing things, and another group of us didn't really realize what they were doing and we got together, six of us, and said Wouldn't it be nice for Pueblo to have a river walk. Tommy Thompson was one of those people. Within a week we found out well the Conservancy District already started so let's get some of their leadership together and within about three months we had about 90 people involved, and it just grew and and it, there's more plans for the future, but it's a beautiful place to bring your family to walk, to enjoy. Behind us they're going to have a couple of great bands here tonight on the street where it's closed off and using this part of the Riverwalk all the way down to the confluence and what an asset it's been. The new business that it's generated along the Riverwalk, the expansion of our convention center to bring it right up to the Riverwalk. It's being completed now and then its eventual expansion clear down to Runyon Lake and...it's just something that could be part of an exciting thing like that just, just a blessing. Involves water too.
Samuel Ebersole [01:16:25] That does. You sounded like you were about to say something else as I brought up HARP. Do you remember what that was?
Alan Hamel [01:16:32] No. just thank you for the opportunity and I think we've had
opportunities in the past, I think of Tommy Thompson, I was going to do a similar interview with him, and he developed cancer and passed away very quickly and we didn't get that chance. And so I think what CSU is doing with this, and the archives is just great, to be part of it I feel very fortunate.
Samuel Ebersole [01:17:05] Well we're very pleased and thankful that you chose to be...and for your long career and contribution and then to be a part of it so thank you.
Alan Hamel [01:17:13] And God willing to hopefully having another day or two to do a little more.
