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'III tr I �� .II •� �. I �. � � � <br />Bauserman said water transfers generally improve the economy statewide, specifically the area receiving <br />the water, but they handicap the area from which the water is taken. <br />The affected parties include not only farmers, but agricultural suppliers and processing industries, local <br />businesses, taxpayers, schools, special districts and local governmental services. The decrease in bonding <br />capacity for taxing districts is especially troubling, he said. <br />Bauserman said there are 63,000 acres of irrigated farmland in Otero County, and the sale of Rocky Ford <br />Ditch water in the mid -1980s coupled with the proposed sale would dry up 10 percent of this acreage. He <br />also said 63 jobs and nearly $1.5 million in annual personal income would be lost as a result of the first <br />sale and the proposed sale. <br />Orville Tomky <br />Ron Aschermann <br />Puebloan Bob Jackson urged the conservancy district board members to consider "if there is any amount <br />of mitigation that will compensate for the loss of water 10 years, 25 years, even 90 years in the future." <br />Robert Rawlings, publisher of The Pueblo Chieftain, said Southeastern Colorado farmers who suffered <br />through the Dust Bowl were knowledgeable about farming, they just didn't always have the necessary <br />water. <br />"That was what prompted the golden fryingpan campaign (for the Fry -Ark Project)," Rawlings said. <br />"That's why we feel it is so serious a problem when we start to divert our precious water out of the <br />valley." <br />Rawlings said there are problems in Colorado's water arena, and changes in water law should be made. <br />There should be a greater emphasis on water quality, he said. <br />"I just would like to ask you (the district directors), before you go ahead with this, to consider everyone in <br />the district - all who pay our taxes in the district - consider whether it is fair to them." <br />Orville Tomky, a conservancy district director from Olney Springs, said Aurora's ability to store water in <br />Fry -Ark Project facilities should be left as it is. <br />"But (Aurora's participation in) the Preferred Storage Options Plan, I'm against it," Tomky said. "I'd <br />suggest we postpone it for at least five years. Pueblo West, the St. Charles Mesa and the area east of <br />Colorado Springs are building up fast. In five years, the district may need all that (additional) storage <br />space. Aurora could keep its `if and when' storage." <br />2of3 8/31/011053 AM <br />