By TOM MCAVOY,
The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
DENVER, Sep. 21, 2000 (Knight Ridder/Tribune) — A key to saving Colorado's open spaces from development may be found in water banking and leasing to keep rural land in agriculture, officials said Tuesday.
"Maybe we ought to come to the table with financial incentives for a farmer or rancher not to sell water off the land," Greg Walcher, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said.
"The rapid growth of cities, on the Front Range especially, is a threat to agriculture -- not just to the land but to the water, as well," said Walcher, a member of Gov. Bill Owens' Cabinet.
Walcher raised the issue as he and other members of the Governor's Commission on Saving Open Spaces, Farms and Ranches met in Denver.
State Agriculture Commissioner Don Ament and Steve Arveschoug, general manager of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, were other commission members in support of the concept of a water bank.
The open space commission made no decision but will make recommendations to the governor this fall.
Ament said an entity like Arveschoug's Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Pueblo could be designated a broker for banking -- such as storing in Lake Pueblo -- excess water that farmers and ranchers don't need, particularly in wet years.
Then, the broker could lease the excess water to the highest bidder, perhaps a city such as Aurora or Colorado Springs, while the agricultural landowner doesn't have to sell the water rights, Ament said.
"I envision these farmers putting in 5 or 10 percent of their water (to a banking reservoir) that allows them to keep farming the land," said Ament, the Owens' Cabinet officer perhaps most committed to preserving Colorado's rural agricultural economy.
Because a lease could involve an exchange and change in use of a water right, Ament proposed testing the idea as a pilot project, most likely funded by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Before a pilot project can be conducted, the commission must make it a recommendation, the governor must accept it and the Legislature probably will have to pass a bill funding it.
Ament nominated the Lower Arkansas Valley for the pilot project since it is the river basin faced directly with the imminent loss of rural water through the pending sale of Rocky Ford Ditch.
Arveschoug, whose district manages the basin, said saving agricultural land and water rights isn't enough unless thirsty cities are offered something in return, specifically long-range water storage.
The open space commission also discussed whether to add rural land conservation leases to the existing law, sponsored by Rep. Lola Spradley, R-Beulah, that offers tax credits for permanently donating development rights as conservation easements to charitable trusts.
Because leases would be only temporary, perhaps only 12-20 years, they sparked far more controversy than the perpetual easements in Spradley's tax-credit legislation.
Representatives of environmentalist conservation groups serving on the commission argued against leases for allowing development, though later if not sooner.
Other commission members, notably lobbyist Danny Williams, developer Gregory Stevinson and Kent Lebsack of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, supported giving farmers and ranchers the chance to earn conservation easement money without permanently giving up their development rights.
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Copyright 2000, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
