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Senate pulls plug on farm water deal

W. Slope interests quickly KO sale of excess runoff

By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 2, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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John D. Hendrick, general manager of the Centennial Water and Sanitation District, speaks against Senate Bill 247 before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday. The bill failed 4-3.

Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

John D. Hendrick, general manager of the Centennial Water and Sanitation District, speaks against Senate Bill 247 before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday. The bill failed 4-3.

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A last-minute effort to free up water for eastern Colorado farmers whose wells have been shut down died within hours of its birth Thursday, despite the backing of key Democrats, Gov. Bill Ritter and the state's two largest water utilities.

Senate Bill 247, sponsored by Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, and Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, would have permitted excess water from the Colorado River to help replenish the South Platte and allow hundreds of farmers to pay off an old debt to the river.

It was defeated in the Senate Agriculture Committee just hours after being introduced.

The Western Slope water is delivered to the Front Range by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. The bill would have allowed Northern to sell the water to the farmers this year on a temporary basis.

That would have given them an opportunity to satisfy a requirement to return water to the river and allow some to restart their wells. Northern and Denver Water spoke in favor of the proposal.

'08 water likely bountiful

Brophy said he and Isgar introduced the bill because it would have allowed farmers to take advantage of the bountiful runoff expected this spring.

And it would come at a time when farmers, for the first time in years, are profiting from high commodity prices.

"We have the potential to have real, live wet water to lease to folks who can benefit. This would allow farmers to extend their irrigation season or plant a few more acres and be profitable at levels they haven't been at in a couple of generations," Brophy said.

But the proposal could not overcome the opposition of Western Slope communities that rely on the Colorado River, and cities such as Highlands Ranch and Boulder, which have long feared that overuse of the South Platte River will harm their own water rights.

John Hendrick, manager of the Centennial Water and Sanitation District, which serves Highlands Ranch, said the last-minute nature of the proposal was unacceptable. The legislative session ends next week.

"I find it disturbing that the process has been circumvented. This is out of order," Hendrick said.

Well owners said they came up with the idea about 10 days ago and didn't receive the backing of important advocates, such as Ritter and Isgar, until earlier this week.

Alex Davis, assistant director for water of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said the pressure to act quickly shouldn't negate the value of the proposal.

"The West Slope concerns are about whether this will result in a bigger draw on the Colorado River. It will not," she said. "Given that this is going to be a wet year, there is a real opportunity to allow some of the excess water to be used. This provides that legal mechanism."

Wells cut off in 2002

For decades, South Platte farmers had used powerful irrigation wells to pull water from the aquifer that underlies the river, thereby lessening the river's flows. That left farmers and cities that rely on the river's surface flows with less water.

After the 2002 drought struck, a fierce battle between surface water users and those with wells erupted, pitting cities such as Highlands Ranch and Boulder, and some farmers, against hundreds of well owners.

As a result, new rules were enacted requiring well owners to replenish the river at higher levels and to repay debts created by overpumping.

But years of drought and rising use of water by cities has made it difficult for the farmers to find new sources of water to replenish the river. As a result, thousands of acres can no longer be planted.

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5474

Comments

  • May 2, 2008

    1:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    anarchist writes:

    And the elected officials continue to invite more and more water users into the state as if the supply was unlimited, and yet I recieved my "watering schedule" along with an enormous bill, born free taxed and fee'd to death, proud to be a coloradoan, and could you please charge me more to drive on the lousy roads too?

  • May 3, 2008

    2:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ddechant writes:

    Over and over again Boulder and Centennial extinguish any reasonable attempt by well owners to get their wells running again. As a farmer with curtailed wells, I ask myself why are they so much against us?

    We have always done what the state wanted and played by the rules. When the state wanted farmers to adjudicate their wells, we did so. When the state wanted us to join augmentation plans, we did so.

    When the Colo. Supreme Court ruled that the State Water Engineer no longer had the authority to administer augmentation plans, thereby giving objectors such as Centennial and Boulder the power to use the water court as a means of getting the State Engineer to tell us to shut off the wells, we complied with the order to shut down.

    Now, only after great expense and ordeal, we have a chance to get our wells running at a fraction of what they did in the past. And along come Boulder and Centennial to beat us right back down again.

    What is their motive? Their water rights will not be injured if we can use the CBT water for augmentation, in fact it will put more water in the river for the benefit of everyone. At this point they are merely abusing their power.

    It seems they just want to shut us off and keep us off, though there is no way we will ever be a threat to them with the stringent requirements water court imposes on augmentation plans.

    If we are allowed to run our wells again, the water certainly will be put to good use, growing real food at a time when the world needs it the most. And that's a lot more than the "ranchers" in "Highlands Ranch" are capable of doing. While they are keeping us from doing what we do best, perhaps they can find a way to turn their Kentucky bluegrass lawns and golf courses into something edible.