PUB00048 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I I I ,I I I I I I DRAFT 8/24/92, Page 15 Over the years, the Denver Water Department has been acquiring agricultural water rights in and around the metro area as such rights become available. In some cases, the Water Department has been willing to accept water rights acquired by suburban districts and developers in exchange for taps. In addition, the Water Department has been willing to accommodate the delivery through the Denver system of agricultural water acquired by others. These acquisitions have averaged about 3,000 acre feet per year and proposals for transactions of this type have increased during the last few years. In a more recent example, the City of Thornton in 1986 purchased approximately 21,000 acres of farmland and associated agricultural water rights in Northern Colorado to the east of Fort Collins. Thornton's overall plan is to initially transfer only the consumable portion of these rights. Eventually Thornton plans to replace the historical return flows associated with these rights with its municipal wastewater, thereby increasing its transfers to the full diversion amount. Thornton is now in water court attempting to quantify the amount of transferable yield from these rights. The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District is actively opposing Thornton's application, consistent with its overall policy of preserving the region's base water supply. Specific disputed issues include the amount of transferable consumptive use associated with Thornton's rights, potential injuries to other water users and water quality issues. Thornton is also investigating alternative facilities for transporting this water south to its service area. Purchase and dry-up of agricultural lands usually generates strong opposition from local communities due to impacts on local farm-based economies, tax bases and rural life styles. However, this method of water acquisition continues to be seen by many cities as one of the most cost-effective and manageable ways to increase their water supplies. I Issues to be Addressed I I I I I I I I I The overall problems associated with the purchase of agricultural water rights and the permanent dry-up of agricultural land are the local socioeconomic impacts related to such transfers, the lack of any systematic approach of comprehensive framework for their evalJation and implementation, and the legal and institutional barriers that inhibit a market approach to water rights: 1. In the purchase and transfer agricultural water rights, not only are other water rights potentially affected, but impacts to local farm-based communities and economies can occur as well. Given the large economic difference in the value of water for municipal versus agricultural use, there should be sufficient ability to address such local impacts. Incorporating such concerns into a more comprehensive approach to agricultural-municipal water transfers would reduce the political momentum for basin-of-origin protection legislation. 2. The current piecemeal approach to agricultural water acquisitions can heighten the degree of impacts to local farm-based communities and economies, results in arbitrary dry-up of agricultural lands without sufficient regard to their productivity, leads to relatively costly and inefficient water court change proceedings and may result in duplicative delivery facilities. From a public policy prospective, it would make more sense to approach agricultural water rights acquisition from a more planned and comprehensive perspective. 3. Certain Colorado water laws inhibit the market transfer of water rights. A good example of this type of law is the statute banning the sale of project water by a conservancy district outside of its boundaries. (This restriction has been relaxed