BOARD00667 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. . 1-"70 SCOUT . . Tuesday, February 10, 2004 .&airie;GOld . Engineer: No new water molecules in Colorado . . "There jlrc no new moJecuJes of w.a- ter in the state of Colorado," said Jens Danielson in 1987, then Colorado's wa- ter engineer, the man in charge of all wate!' decisions for the state. Danielson spoke at Adams Slale Col- lege inAlumosulo a hastily-called meet- ing of represemDl;Ye5 of the San Luis Valley's water districts afler Denver- based American Water Development applied on the last day of 1986 to pump 200,000 acre-feet per year for 100 years from the San Luis Valley Confined Aquifer, believed by engineers from the U.S. Geological Survey to contain 2 bil- lion acre-feet of water, which would make it the second largest ground water aquifer on the North American conri- nent. Representatives from the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and the Rio Grande Water Users Association knew what the AWD application meant- they hired water lawyer David Robbins, who later would lead the legal learn rep- resenting Colorado's interest in the Colorado-Kansas case, concerning Kan- sas' claim that water users on the Ar- kansas River had been stiffmg the down- stream slate [or decades. Robbins. unforgettable because of his handlebar mustache and wit, won the A WD case in Alamosa water court, then in the Colorado Supreme Court, and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - - then in the Supreme Court. AWD declared bankruptcy and the $1.3 million in attorney's fees it owed the valley's water districlS was not paid. There an: no new molecules of water in the sIDle of Colorado. The water of Colorado is spoken for,' or appropriated, in the language of . Danielson's fanner office. The recent statements by Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Sleamboal Springs, that nearly two thirds of the water rights in Grand County are now owned by Front Range interests, primarily Denver Wa- terand the Northem Water Conservancy District, and that his proposed water leg- islation, now in committee, requires a water court judge to mandate an en- forceable mitigation plan before water rights are transferred. resound. Then to read that the Statew ide Water Supply Initiative, an 18.month study conducted by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado Water Conservation Board projects, in the study's mid-term report released Jan. 28, that the state needs an additional 708,000 acre-feet of water to meet ba- sic needs of the municipal and indus- trial agencies by 2030 and that needs in the South Platte River basin will require 60 percent more water than exists to- day, casts an ominous gloom. Mostly in the first half of the 20th cen- J tury water rights holders in Crowley County sold the water rit?hts from un- deme~th 90 percent of the-irrigated land there (0 the chies of Aurora Hm) Pueblo. Many of lhosesales were arranged by a Denver attorney named Glenn Suunders. The cities did not have to build new pipelines. Pueblo just took the water out of the Arkansas River as it headed east onto the plains. Aurora, through the state's system of credits and shares. took the waler out of reservoirs near the Continental Divide. Turn on the water ~t the t'o1ucel, pUl your finger into the middle of the gush, and some of the water goes south (Pueblo), some goes north (Aurora). Saunders was one of a group of attor- neys at a Denver office thaI also repre- sented American Water Development. In case you forgot, AWD's team in- cluded some heavy hitters - Dale Shaffer, fonnerly of Denver Water, Dick Lamm, fonner governor of Colorado, Maurice Slrong, fanner undersecretary at the Uniled Nations, William Ruckleshaus, former director of the Environmental Protection Agency, and others. Years after the trial, Strong, then chief operating officer of Onlario Power, ad- mitted he still owned a minor share - a tenth of a pt::rcent or so-orany rev- enues A WD Oliglu hilve realized. In 191)1 Icrms, 200.000 acre-feet of wDfer sold 10 water users would have grossed $2 billion. Stron!!'~ share the firsl vear AWD pumped-would Imve been $2 million. Waler ulways flows uphill toward moner. a potato farmer illlhe Sun Luis Valley likes to joke. All Coloradans love u good story. In this case the moral is there Ute no new mulecules of water in Colorado, and that the wllter jn Colorado i~ .appro- prillled. Circle the wilgons. Adjudicalc your well. Protecl your water rights. Sell the water rights, am} your best friend will be a soil (;onservlltioll dis- tricr agenl trained 10 milke grass grow On dewillered land lalking about some- thing culled holistic resource manage~ men!. Ask those in Crowley County. Don't sell, and the well dressed gang at the door waving cash might see you again in court to begin condemnation proceedings. Is there u Wal-Man in your future? Of course. the agencies. legislators and attorneys have an option. . Close Colorado. -John Hill , ,