WSP05336 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

3442 Because of economic conditions, the water resources in the area are presently undervalued and markets for these resources have been developing outside the lower valley. HISTORICAL WATER TRANSFERS - ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY Water transfers have been numerous in the Arkansas Valley. This section describes significant water transfers in the region between Pueblo and the Kansas state line. Included are details of water rights transferred to non-agricultural uses; not included are transfers for the same agricultural use such as the Pueblo Reservoir Winter Storage Case. Ag-to-ag transfers illustrate that agricultural users have continuously improved their own uses of water by changing diversion points, using exchanges, locating storage, consolidating ditches, trading water rights, and cooperatively managing water since the ditches were first constructed in the late nineteenth century. The most cost effective water management improvements were recognized and implemented by irrigators years ago. The main agricultural impact for all of the thirteen (13) transfers identified has been or will be the loss of lands from irrigated crop production. The transfers have removed approximately 56,100 acres from production. Dried-up farms are easily identified by the knowledgeable observer. Data from Kansas vs. Colorado. a current interstate compact litigation, indicates that from Pueblo to the state line the 1950-1985 average of land under irrigation from 25 ditch companies is 320,851 acres. Historical transfers account for 56,100/320,851 or about an 18 percent reduction thus far. Dry-up of 51 % of the FLeC would increase this amount to 32%. Water right sale information both lower and upper Arkansas water rights and is presented in Table 1. The Lower Arkansas water rights of the Las Animas Consolidated Canal, Colorado Canal Companies, and Rocky Ford Ditch are comparable to the Fort Lyon Canal system. These comparable water rights were sold in the years 1985 to 1988 at a cost which ranged from $1,570 to $3,152 per acre foot of consumptive use. Other Upper Arkansas water rights have sold at much higher values, as shown in Table 1. SUMMARY OF PRESENT SOCIOLOGICAL PROFILE This agricultural area of the Great Plains is experiencing population changes including declining numbers, aging, and "an increasingly weakening income position" (Weber 1991, 36). Young adults are moving away from the area, and fewer childbearing couples remain behind to start new families and contribute to the communities, compared with the nation as a whole. While there has been a significant amount of migration out of the area for many decades, those who remain have strong roots and ties to the amount of migration out of the area for many decades, those who remain have strong roots and ties to the area. Thus, unlike many rural areas of Colorado, where recent arrivals from citites have moved in and "urbanized" the local culture, the roots and values of these people are still found in agriculture and ranching. This suggests a strong attachment to the agricultural way of like and resistance to its loss. According to national standards and definitions of poverty, the area is among the poorest in the nation. Except in Kiowa County, Anglos are considerably better off financially than are Hispanics and Blacks. This is part of a pattern wherever labor-intensive row crops are grown and a significant number of permanent or migrant farm laborers are employed.