Mayor of Aurora Defends Purchase of Rocky Ford Water: Pueblo Chieftain

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The Pueblo Chieftain Online - Wednesday April 04, 2001 wysiwyg:Hl 15/http://www. chieftain. com /display /archive/2001 /mar /24 /ni2.htm Career Opportunities I retaliated by threatening to lobby against federal EVENTS ACTIVITIES: I approval of the district's proposal to enlarge State Fair Pueblo Dam. Active Years Summerfest Winterfest If the district prevails with the U.S. Bureau of Guidebook Spring Runoff 2001 Reclamation Aurora could lose the use of some Pueblo Zoo 8,250 acre -feet of water it gets from water rights it FOCUS ON YOUTH: bought in the Rocky Ford Ditch in the early Headbone Zone 1980s. Classroom Chieftain School District 60 School District 70 Aurora is currently buying most of the rest of the Pueblo Library District ditch's water rights, which has put it even more at odds with valley leaders who don't want to lose any more farming water. But Aurora needs that water and it paid willing sellers to buy it, Tauer said. And of every city that has bought water from Arkansas valley farmers and ranchers, Aurora has done the most to make up for the way those sales hurt local economies. Tauer noted that Aurora has paid property taxes on land involved in the first Rocky Ford Ditch sale, even though it didn't have to. The city also worked with Lake County officials to provide water storage and open space there after buying a ranch's water rights. Aurora wouldn't need to buy Arkansas Valley water at all if it could build some kind of water project to tap the enormous quantity of Colorado River water that leaves the state unclaimed. "We've got 500,000 acre -feet each year in Colorado that's rolling down to water lawns in California," he said. But the West Slope has always resisted sending more water across the Great Divide to eastern Colorado, so Aurora has to look elsewhere. The city truly cares about helping communities from which water is sold, Tauer said. "Our philosophy is not to just take it and run, because we don't like it when developers do that in the city," he said. It's not as though Aurora needs the water because it has let growth go unchecked or because the city won't conserve water, Tauer said. r4_� t� I1SU�l1+�1� �rew �nts, Ltd.. '84 � 1 ' 'S Iii A Red & `Rreakfast 2 of 4 4/4/014:50 PM