Cities protecting their water turf

Jerd Smith And Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 12, 2006 at midnight

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GREELEY - Three Front Range cities, concerned that heavy pumping of irrigation wells along the South Platte River might harm their own water rights, threatened to block the state's approval of a temporary plan that would have allowed some 200 farms to continue pumping this spring.

The state's decision to shut down 440 wells this week - after hundreds of fields already have been planted - came in part because of concerns that Boulder, Highlands Ranch and Sterling have raised about the farmers' ability to meet a tough new state law designed to protect the river's flows, according to State Engineer Hal Simpson, Colorado's top water regulator.

"If I had approved (the continued pumping of well water), they would have appealed immediately," Simpson said Thursday, referring to the three cities.

Regardless of those concerns, however, Simpson said the farmers simply haven't been able to line up enough new supplies to comply with the law - enacted in 2003 after the drought began - which requires well users to replenish the river.

The logic behind the law: Farm wells draw down the aquifer that feeds the South Platte.

Meanwhile, the farmers may get some relief from what would appear to be an unlikely source - the city of Aurora, which has supply problems of its own.

Any solution to the crisis, which prompted Gov. Bill Owens to declare a state of emergency in Weld, Adams and Morgan counties Wednesday, will have to come quickly to save crops already in the ground, farmers said Thursday at a special meeting in Greeley of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District.

The farmers whose lands lie within the district have invested $19 million since 2004 to comply with the new law, building gravel pits for storage and purchasing water rights, according to Tom Cech, Central's manager.

"Maybe we should just all go home and pray for rain and snow," quipped Bob Sakata, a longtime vegetable grower in Brighton who has invested $264,000 in planting land he can no longer water.

Any quick solution to the crisis will require the protesting cities' approval, said Andy Jones, a water attorney representing the farmers.

"The primary way to get something to happen quickly is to get all the parties to agree," Jones said.

Carol Ellinghouse, Boulder's water resources coordinator, said the city would be willing to sit down and talk about a potential compromise.

"But our concerns remain the same," she said - that the wells have pulled too much water from the same shallow aquifer that helps supply the South Platte River.

Boulder's position is that well users must help replenish the river enough to ensure that those with rights to the river's surface supplies aren't harmed.

In 2002, more than a dozen Front Range cities and farmers who rely on surface water successfully sued the state and won a stricter set of rules for managing the river and the aquifer.

Though hundreds of well-dependent farmers have been able to find enough water to comply with the law, the 200 farms affected by this week's cease-pumping order had been operating under a temporary plan now deemed insufficient.

A water court is scheduled to examine their permanent plan next February.

The water crisis on the South Platte comes as cities enjoy one of the best water years they've seen since the late 1990s. Many, including Boulder, have lifted all watering restrictions, while others, such as Denver, have significantly relaxed the rules designed to reduce outside water use.

Water officials and the state engineer's office have been in talks all week looking for a way to keep the farmers pumping this year.

On Thursday, the giant Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District said its board would take up the issue today.

And Aurora utilities director Peter Binney said Thursday his city would be providing some additional water to help farmers whose wells are being shut down.

Already, Aurora has agreements that benefit agriculture in the South Platte Basin, including one that provides 8,800 acre-feet to the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District. That agreement allows the district to put Aurora's water in the river to make up for water pumped from some of its wells.

And in the wake of the developments this week, Binney said the city will find additional water on the South Platte that it will offer farmers, at least in the short term.

"We're going to be talking to (state agriculture) Commissioner (Don) Ament and Tom Cech (manager of Central) to find other ways we can operate our system" to make more water available, Binney said.

Aurora's offer comes even as the city is suffering another tough year, with reservoirs at just 60 percent of capacity and expected to drop further on the heels of a dry April.

"We will be in a depleting mode again this year - we're not gaining on reservoir storage," Binney said.

At the same time, without some pipelines and other infrastructure in place, water the city has claim to on the South Platte can't be accessed yet. So why not provide it to farmers, Binney said.

"We know that in five years, (the water) will be connected into our system," he said. "In that we do have control over this asset, I think it's appropriate we get the best mileage out of it."

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5474

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