Colorado Farmers Find Their Water is Worth Morre than Their Crops: Wall Street Journal

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Dirt Poor Colorado Farmers Find Their Water Is Worth More Than Their Crops So. Rocky Ford's Melon Men Sell Out to the Big Cities And Anger the Neighbors `The Only Asset We Have' By ROBERT TONISHO Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ROCKY FORD, Colo.— Farmer Ron As- chermann plans to sell his water rights to the fast - growing Denver suburb of Aurora and, for him, that means deliverance from a debt - ridden way of life. "I'm telling you, I am relieved that I am not planting another crop," he says, dri- ving his threadbare Buick past the stubble of last year's corn. Not everyone here shares his relief. "There are a lot of things that may be legal but they are not ethical," grumbles neigh- bor Sara Chambers, who says Mr. Ascher - mann's deal amounts to a betrayal of the small farming community that has sus- tained his family for generations. If the sale hatched by Mr. Aschermann of another sizable gulp of the irrigation wa- ter.that flows though the Rocky Ford Ditch is completed, more than 3,000 agri- cultural acres will revert to prairie grass. Tax valua- tions are expected to plummet. Other farmers will proba- bly pursue similar paydays.s.;;° As more and more Rocky Ford water goes to the big Ron ascherniann cities, some fear that the local economy will collapse like a rank melon. "Once the water is sold, there is no agricultural economy. Zero." declares Jim Moreland, whose family has sold farm equipment here for 50 years. "It's like tear- ing down the factory to give the workers their retirement money." The economies of small towns are fre- quently rocked by market shifts and tech- nology changes. But sometimes the future suddenly comes to ride on the decisions of a few neighbors and friends. For 57- year -old Ron Aschermann. that moment means abandoning the fields that his great - grandfather plowed and selling shares in the waterway that winds through his hometown like a great brown artery. "I grew up here, I raised a family here." he says. "It is not an easy decision.' 1-1 -2T -ov Water struggles have been a part of the West's economic landscape since the and region's waterways were first dammed and diverted. But lately, the rancor has in- tensified as burgeoning urban areas scramble to line up reserves they need. Slippery Slope The activity has been particularly con- tentious in Colorado,- where almost every dribble of natural flow was claimed years ago and special state courts pass judgment whenever a water right changes hands. Colorado's thirstiest consumers are Denver and other large cities strewn across the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. linable to find adequate wa- ter within their boundaries, they have dammed distant mountain streams and lashed together massive systems of tun- nel and pipe. Increasingly, the munici- palities have also snapped up water rights once held by rural farmers and ranchers, many of whom have fallen on I hard times. "We don't go around knocking on peo- pie's doors," says Doug Kemper, water -re- sources manager for Aurora, a city of 260,000 that sprawls out from Denver's ' eastern border. "But if somebody is inter- ested in selling, it doesn't take a rocket sci- entist to know who the buyers are." Aurora already draws its water from three different river basins, piping it in from as far as 130 miles away. With a pop- ulation that is projected to grow rapidly, it .needs to find 10,000 acre-feet of additional water every decade. An acre -foot equals about 326,000 gallons of water, or roughly enough to cover a football field to a depth of one foot. Historically, Aurora's.- quest hasn't made -it many friends in rural areas such as Rocky Ford, about 60 miles southeast of Pueblo, where local farmers have long taken pride in the irrigation ditch that cuts into the banks of the Arkansas River a few miles west of town. . Narrower than a country lane and only 13 miles long, the Rocky Ford Ditch is a humble one compared with others Criss- crossing the surrounding valley, but its heritage is among the richest. The area was a parched desert before settlers began gouging out the ditch with giant horse- drawn scoops after the Civil War. Soon, lo- cal promoters were handing out free mel- ons on passing trains and Rocky Ford was gaining a reputation for sugar beets, onions and cantaloupe. If ditch shareholders sometimes feuded among themselves over water use, they jealously protected their rights from out- siders. Beginning in the late 1970s, how- ever, their determination suffered a series of blows. Vast swaths of farmland in neigh- boring Crowley County were reduced to blowing dust and weeds after Aurora and Colorado Springs gained control of another big canal. Meanwhile, American Crystal Sugar Co. closed its local processing plant and sold its majority stake in the Rocky Ford Please Turn to Puge Al2, Column 1