Easement Law may Forestall Water Sales: Pueblo Chieftain

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The Pueblo Chieftain Online I Friday wysiwyg: // 220 /hftp: / /www.chieftain....rsday /news /display.php3 ?article =a 13 Summerfest landowners sell or donate their right to develop their land. Winterfest Development isn't a fear on the wide -open prairies of the Guidebook lower Arkansas Valley. But the same mechanism can be Spring Runoff used to bind water rights to the lands they have always Pueblo Zoo irrigated. FOCUS ON YOUTH: The landowner either gets cash from the buyer of the Headbone Zone easement, typically an environmental group. Or, the Images landowner can donate the easement to a nonprofit group Classroom Chieftain and get credit against their future taxes. School District 60 School District 70 The easements have worked well in mountain areas where Pueblo Library District environmental groups have been willing to pay million of dollars in order to guarantee that ranches and farms remain open space and not trophy home communities. But the more arid prairie of the lower Arkansas Valley hasn't prompted such generosity. Conservation easements haven't been popular here because they've been good only for tax credits, credits that farmers haven't really needed because they haven't made a lot of money in recent years. But that changed last May when the state Legislature passed a law allowing tax credits from conservation easements to be applied against the next 20 years of a person's state taxes. Or, if the state is running a surplus, the taxpayer can apply to get his entire credit refunded in cash - something that could mean hundreds of thousand of dollars to water - owning farmers. Additionally, a farmer's tax credits can be sold to someone else, perhaps a large corporation that needs them for cash. The picture isn't as rosy for federal taxes, Rose explained. Federal tax law says tax credits can be applied only toward the next six years of taxes and aren't refundable. But Rose said his group is looking in to the transferability of federal tax credits to see if they can be sold. The group has discovered that Otero County can begin accepting donations of conservation easements almost immediately. The group plans to establish a land trust to accept the easements in a few years. County officials have indicated that they want to help and Rose said the group is now putting together the acceptance and administration mechanisms needed. Word of the easements has spread, and Rose said three water owners already have inquired about them. Rose said he's excited at the prospect of finally being able to do something to keep the region's water from vanishing. The easements are the fastest solution available, although they may not be the only solution. "The main purpose of all this," Rose said, "is to give the farmer an alternative to selling his water." For more information, contact Rose at 263 -5503. -�r�, c� Ttf P'ii' firft 2 of 3 9/1/00 3:26 PM