Sky-Hi News Candidate Q&A Question 3: Water rights & river health

Sky-Hi News called me the other day for a raw, unedited interview to give voters an authentic and direct look into my views and my intentions as County Commissioner. I will be posting one question a day for easier reading.

You can read about the format and production of Sky-Hi’s 2026 Election Q&A here.

Question 3:

Grand County provides water that serves communities far beyond our borders. What should the county’s priorities be in protecting local water rights, river health and water supplies as demand increases across Colorado?

Well, the priority should be to retain the water that we have, and that really speaks to, again, standing up, speaking out, making sure that people understand that we are not just at the table as someone who signs documents and goes along with agreements and contracts as they get put before us, but we actually speak up for ourselves, and we’re able to negotiate in good faith to ensure that Grand County has the water we need. And when I say Grand County, and especially in this case, it’s Grand County residents as well, or Grand County human residents, as well as our non-human neighbors, so the wildlife, the landscape, the natural resources-you know-we’re looking at the Fraser River going down to one or two CFS. 

A lot of people, and rightfully so, are focused on the impact that could have on our own taps and our own wells, but we’re also looking at the natural resources and how that could affect not only within the stream itself with the fisheries and the stream banks and what that means for the riparian areas and the wetlands that the Fraser and the Colorado rivers create, but then also just throughout the entire Middle Park ecosystem. So really standing up for that and prioritizing what we need, and it will be difficult; the Colorado River Compact and the Drought Management Plan and all of those are very complicated, and there are a lot of really big players in them, but being at the headwaters I do believe that we play a special role, and we should be recognized as someone who plays a special role in this, and kind of respected to that extent.

You can read the full interview here: https://www.skyhinews.com/news/qa-say-hello-to-jeremy-krones-running-for-county-commissioner-district-3/