2016-08-04_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - M2016009 (5)

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From Krish Craig Fax f71% 545-0255 To- Fax +1 1303! 8328106 Page 2 of 3 0810411016 g 21 AM /Pp July 22, 2016 RECEIVED AUG 0 4 2016 Pueblo Board of County Commissioners DiViSiON OF RECLAMATION Pueblo Planning and Zoning Commission MINING AND SAFETY 215W10thSt. Pueblo, CO 81003 ✓ M -201 6-M v Comments Received Objection lamer Dear Commissioners, We are a group of independent and family farmers located in eastern Pueblo County in the communities of Vineland, Avondale, and Boone. Many of us are multi- generational and centennial farms and members of the Pueblo Chile Growers Association and the Arkansas Valley Organic Growers. We are writing to request a cessation of new industrial commercial activities on or close to prime agricultural lands, immediately adjacent rangeland, and the Bessemer Ditch until a thorough agricultural assessment can be conducted, an updated Pueblo Comprehensive Plan is in place, and rural zoning regulations are reviewed for appropriate protection and preservation of local agriculture. Dr. Michael Bartolo of Colorado State University has often stated that Pueblo County contains some of the best agricultural land in the western United States. Our agricultural resources of clean water, good soils, hot days and cool nights are the reasons our Pueblo Chile, produce, andlivestock products taste as good as they do. Much of our farmland is classified as "prime irrigated soils of national importance". The economic impact of agriculture in Pueblo County is significant: crop and livestock sales, for example in 2012, were $51,091,000 (U.S. Census of Agriculture, 2012). Hundreds of long-term, sustainable jobs and family income are tied to our farming activities. But our communities are changing fast and premium food production land is increasingly vulnerable to water sales, development, heavy rainfall/flooding events, and impacts from commercial industrial activities. In the last fifteen years, for example, there have been three permit applications for large gravel mining operations, a nuclear power plant, and contamination of wells from the Pueblo Chemical Depot. These types of land uses represent significant threats to food production and our agricultural resources of soil and water. We are concerned about spending our time and limited resources fighting off corporations and industrial interests year -in and year -out to secure our on-going farming activities. We need new solutions and leadership to address this situation. The last Pueblo Comprehensive plan was published fourteen years ago and contains limited treatment of production agriculture.