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The first court date for the project is nearly a year away. In the meantime, Lembke and FRICO are pushing forward. "Objectors like Aurora can make our lives more difficult in court. And they can force us to spend a lot more money," said FRICO engineer Duane Helton. "But we don't believe they can stop us." Already, about $45 million -derived from early water sales -has been spent on a new diversion structure on the South Platte River, a small pipeline to Barr Lake, and a small reservoir in Adams County, as well as the purchase of the ranch. None of [his would have been possible, though, without FRICO, an old-line irrigation company formed in 1902. At the turn of the century, its founders claimed about 100,000 acre-feet of water high in the Fraser River across the Continental Divide to irrigate crops before a bankruptcy forced them to sell their assets to what would become Denver Water. Soon FRICO regrouped, building a system that now includes Standley Lake in Westminster and three lesser known agriculture reservoirs: Marshall, Milton and Barr lakes. r Value of shares rises Today, FRICO operates one of the largest water highways in the metro area. Two of its close-in storage ponds, Standley and Marshall, are already largely controlled by cities. The venture with Lembke will link FRICO's Milton and Barr lakes water to the metro area, giving farmers in the system the option to sell their shares for $22,500 each, nearly double what [hey were worth one year ago. Here's why. Key [o moving water between farms and cities is the principle of return Flows. Under Colorado water law, farmers are entitled to divert a certain amount of water, say 100 acre-feet, from the stream. But they can sell only the portion of the water actually consumed by the crop -roughly half. The rest -the return Flows that travel back to the river underground after a crop is irrigated -must stay in the stream to ensure water rights farther down receive their fair share of water. As a result, though FRICO has billions of gallons of water, only a portion could be sold to city users unless a new source of return flows could be added to the stream farther down the river. That's where the 70 Ranch comes in. Its water rights can be used as substitute return Flows, in effect nearly doubling the amount of FRICO water that can be sold to cities. Because of its central location in the river basin, as cities buy or lease more farm water they, too, can use the ranch and its underground storage as a place to put return flows back into the river, freeing up supplies in the river that are closer to the metro area. All of FRICO's shareholders -including more than 200 farm families -unanimously approved the municipal water plan four years ago. The project gives them the option to sell or to continue farming. Some already have sold their shares, others, such as 62-yea r- old ].D. Eckhardt, are still farming. Knowing that the sale of his family's water into the new municipal system could provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to his father, his siblings, himself and everyone's grandchildren is comforting, but i[ can't erase a _- certain sadness Eckhardt and his neighbors feel. http:!/www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/cda/article~rinU0,1983,DRMN_21_4196615_... 11 /9/2005