Officials from five counties in the Lower Arkansas Valley presented an economic analysis of the effects of cities’ purchases of water rights on Nov. 4 in Rocky Ford. According to the report, the drying up of about 100,000 acres costs the region around $142 million a year.
The data was presented at a water summit in the form of an interactive “story map.” The analysis was prepared by The Freshwater Trust on commission from the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. According to the district’s manager, Jack Goble, one county commissioner asked after seeing the figures whether it would be possible to recover even one year of that income. Another reportedly said he would rather have the county return to the way it was before the water left than receive any sum of money.
One of the maps in the report shows who owns the water rights to 46,600 acres in Crowley County that were formerly irrigated from the Colorado Canal. The rights belong to Colorado Springs Utilities and Aurora Water. Today only 3,100 acres are used for farming. Annette Barber, curator of the history center in Crowley (population 153), recalled at the summit that the smell of the fields has disappeared from the area.
The analysis is meant to help valley officials in negotiations with the cities buying water. It makes it possible to calculate the impact of losing each irrigated acre and to demand appropriate compensation in future transactions.
Aurora and Colorado Springs acknowledge that Crowley County suffered harm in the past. However, they point out that other events also weakened the region’s economy. The sugar beet processing plant in Sugar City closed in 1967, and the Crystal Sugar plant in Rocky Ford closed in 1979. Similar water purchases would not be possible on the same terms today: a law signed by Gov. Jared Polis requires buyers, at a minimum, to plant vegetation on the dried-up land.
Alex Davis, deputy director of Aurora Water, emphasizes that it is usually farmers themselves who approach the city with an offer to sell. According to her, Aurora is finalizing negotiations with historic farms in the Arkansas Valley that will allow crops to continue on family businesses more than a century old. Davis added that the movement of water between different uses is not in itself a negative thing.
Source: Colorado Sun
KN
