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Bill eases selling of farm water to cities

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 28, 2006 at midnight

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Farmers interested in sharing their water with fast-growing cities along the Front Range will be able to do so more easily under legislation approved by the Colorado Senate this week.

Under House Bill 1124, farmers will be able to idle portions of their land from one year to the next without jeopardizing their legal right to the water. Cities would then pay the farmers to take the unused water using long-term contracts.

The idea is to keep as much irrigated land working as possible, while providing farmers a way to generate extra cash and giving cities access to badly needed new water supplies.

"Right now big cities are buying up farms and drying them up. That kills the farms and the communities," said Rep. Mary Hodge, the Brighton Democrat who sponsored the bill. "This bill allows a farmer to sell or lease a portion of his water. It gives him more flexibility."

In Colorado and other Western states, farms control more than 80 percent of the water. But permanently buying the water from farm communities often means crippling rural economies and drying up thousands of acres of profitable farms.

Until now, if farmers opted to lease water to cities on a long-term basis, their ability to maintain long-term ownership of the water could have been jeopardized, under Colorado water laws. Those laws require that farmers and others who own water rights actually put the water to use.

HB1124 removes that problem and clarifies how farm water can be administered when portions of a farmer's water are being removed from the land temporarily.

Proponents believe the bill is likely to make it easier for fast-growing cities such as Parker and Castle Rock to tap agricultural water supplies in the South Platte River Basin, which encompasses the metro area and most of the northeastern quadrant of the state.

The long-term contracts would have to be approved by special water courts and overseen by the state engineer's office, the top water regulator in the state.

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