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Two different courses Page 1 of 1 The Pueblo Chieftain Online Select file then print to print this article. Publish Date Tuesday February 5th, 2002 Two different courses EDITORIAL The Pueblo Chieftain A COLORADO Senate committee is scheduled to hold the initial hear on a bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Hillman, R- Burlington, that would go a long way to mitigate local damages when water is taken out of agricultural production and sold to a municipality in another county. SB148 would prohibit a change of a water right from a use that is primarily to produce agricultural products to a use in a municipal area in another county unless the right is the subject of an agreement or a decree containing terms and conditions designed to mitigate the impact of that change. It also would allow counties, alone or as part of an intergovernmental agreement, to levy a county sales tax, use tax, ad valorem tax or any combination of the three of up to 1 percent to be used to purchase, adjudicating changes of leasing, using, and selling water rights. Sen. Hillman's bill is in reaction to the first sale of Rocky Ford Ditch water to Aurora, the pending second sale of most of the remaining Rocky Ford Ditch water to that city, and the apparent attempt to purchase up to 20 percent of the land and associated water on the massive Fort Lyon Canal. The bill states that increasingly frequent transfers have a lasting adverse impact on the economy and environment of rural communities, reducing the productivity of affected lands, eliminating jobs in ag production and processing, and adversely affecting water quality. Thankfully, public officials and citizens in the Lower Arkansas Valley have begun thinking of ways that the water can be kept in the basin. Prowers County Commissioner Leroy Mauch has suggested that a special property tax could be enacted to raise money to buy farming water. Sen. Hillman's bill would allow counties from Pueblo to the state line to form an intergovernmental agreement to do just that. If more water is sold and moved out of this basin, it would cost area school districts, county governments and Main Street businesses an untold amount of taxes and business. Pueblo is a major shopping center for people in the Lower Valley, and an economic downturn there would greatly damage Pueblo's economy as well. Despite these facts, a majority of the board of directors of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District seem intent on greasing the skids to allow outside communities to buy as much water as they can. The conservancy district was formed to make more water more available along a river that is the most over- appropriated in the state, not to facilitate transfers of water out of the basin.. That is unconscionable. The board should be acting for the public trust, which means all the people of the Arkansas Valley, not just a few who want to cash out of farming. The board ought to be listening to the needs of the entire valley, like Sen. Hillman is doing, instead of undoing the accomplishments of those visionaries who worked so hard for years to see the Fryingpan- Arkansas Project built. Gentlemen of the board, have you no shame? ©1996 -2000 The pueblo Chieftain Online httpi /www.chieftain.com/print/tuesday /editorial /articles /edi l .htm 02/05/2002