Deep perils

EDITORIAL
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

THE PROPOSAL to create a so-called Super Ditch in the Lower Arkansas Valley shows some promise, but there are also some Grand Canyon-deep perils if it is fashioned carelessly.

The idea was first promulgated by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. who also has served as the state’s natural resources director, among other positions. The proposal has been embraced by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, which has been piecing together a plan which appears still far away in the future from being ready for fruition.

That concept is for the irrigation canal companies in the Lower Valley join forces collectively to lease a portion - perhaps 25 percent - of their water to other entities. The idea is to give farmers cash payments for fallowing a portion of their lands on a rotating basis.

Lower Ark District Chairman John Singletary has stated in the past there are enough users in this river basin to pay for the leased water. But the real fear is that the leased water would end up leaving this basin.

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The maxim in Colorado is that water flows uphill to money. And areas like Aurora and Douglas County are wealthy enough to outbid potential customers in this basin.

WATER LEASES

Long-term pacts carry long-term consequences

Jeff Chostner, a lawyer and former city councilman, is a Pueblo County commissioner.

The water issues confronting Colorado’s Front Range, and Pueblo County in particular, are complex and subtly intertwined. The Preferred Storage Option Plan (PSOP), the Fountain Creek Visioning Task Force, the “Crown Jewel” concept and various other initiatives and organizations can be bewildering to the casual observer.

Even those intimately involved with the issue of preserving and enhancing Pueblo’s water resources can find the intricacies of water law to be confusing.

Issues of water quality, quantity and land use matters dominate discussion each Friday at Fountain City Hall as representatives of 28 entities struggle to solve these problems. How these entities may find a mechanism to fund measures addressing each of these subjects will go under discussion at the end of this month.

However, one issue of great importance, intimately tied to the preservation of Pueblo’s water resources, concerns water leases and the propriety of long-term agreements. The Pueblo Board of Water Works and the Pueblo West Metro District have been leasing water to the city of Aurora.

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Super Ditch details

EDITORIAL
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

THE DEVIL is in the details for all sorts of things, including the Super Ditch proposed by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District.

We like the concept of the district’s proposed water lease management, rotational crop fallowing program - but only if the leases are short-term, those leasing the water are in the Arkansas River Basin and the Arkansas Valley’s permanent water rights are protected for present and future generations.

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