| Towns Face
Potential Water Impacts |
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Written by Tony Rayl
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Thursday, 11 September 2008
The municipalities of Wray, Eckley and Yuma, to
varying degrees, are facing the possibility of
having their water supply shut off, or having to
replace the water they use, if litigation by the
Pioneer Irrigation Company was to move forward
through the court system.
Pioneer and certain owners of the Laird Ditch,
have a petition before the Colorado Ground Water
Commission that seeks to shut down all high-capacity
wells within 20 miles of the North Fork of the
Republican River, and tributaries.
The 20-mile curtailment zone stretches all the
way to the City of Yuma, putting Yuma in with Wray
and Eckley as municipalities whose water supply is
threatened by the petition.
“I don't want to scare people either,” Eckley
Mayor Mike Leerar said, “but it's a distinct
possibility.”
Pioneer's and Laird's petition currently is on
hold, as Yuma County leaders have put together a
buyout plan it is presenting to voters in the
November general election.
Voters will have two questions to consider. The
first asks to approve a bond issue of $15.375
million (The $375,000 is for legal fees and election
costs), with a 20-year repayment schedule.
The $15 million would be part of a total
purchase of $20 million of senior surface water
rights along the North Fork from the Pioneer and
Laird owners. The other $5 million would come from a
20-year lease for the surface water rights by the
Republican River Water Conservation District — which
will use the water to help the state of Colorado
meet its obligations to the Republican River
Compact.
Voters also will be asked to approve the
formation of the Yuma County Water Authority Public
Improvement District. It would be responsible for
the bond debt and managing the water rights. The
Yuma County Commissioners would have to be the board
of directors, according to state statutes, and the
Yuma County Advisory Board, which includes
representatives from Wray, Eckley and Yuma, would
serve as an advisory board.
Both questions need to pass in order to move
forward with the buyout. Pioneer and Laird have
agreed to drop their petition if the buyout goes
through.
However, if the ballot questions fail, the
process will resume, with a hearing before the
Colorado Ground Water Commission scheduled for
January 9. No matter which side emerges victorious,
it is expected the losing side would appeal, with
the case finally ending before the Colorado Supreme
Court — at what is expected to be a rather expensive
legal cost.
If it went that far, and Pioneer and Laird
prevailed, it also would have to be determined how
far the curtailment zone would reach from the North
Fork. It would determine how far away from the North
Fork are high-capacity wells impacting the river
flow.
If it is 20 miles, as Pioneer and Laird seek,
the City of Yuma would be faced with either shutting
down its wells and finding water elsewhere, or
augmenting the amount of water it uses that is found
to be impacting the North Fork's surface flows.
City Manager Doug Sanderson said the city, if
allowed to keep its wells pumping, probably would
have to purchase surface water rights to augment
what it uses, or buy wells outside the curtailment
zone and build a pipeline to send the water to the
North Fork. He said it is not clear right now how
expensive either would be, but it would not be
cheap, even though the amount Yuma would have to
augment would be a small percentage of what the
municipality and its citizens use now.
The ballot questions are “an insurance policy
where we don't get backed into that corner,”
Sanderson said.
It does not take a 20-mile curtailment zone to
impact the Town of Eckley, which is much closer to
the North Fork.
If it came to a curtailment zone, Leerar said
Eckley leaders have been told a best-case scenario
would be the town would have to augment the amount
of water it is determined Eckley is depleting from
the stream flow. Leerar said Eckley would have to
get the water from outside the curtailment zone and
pipe it to the river.
The worst-case scenario, Leerar said, is that
the town's wells will be shut down and Eckley will
have to purchase water elsewhere.
“It's costly either way,” he said. “…It would be
a whole lot cheaper to buy this water now than to
pay for augmentation water later.”
He added that the State Water Engineer's Office
has told Eckley that it does have the authority to
shut down the town's wells if it came to that.
Wray is right on the front lines of the water
battle, located right on the banks of the North
Fork. If the Pioneer and Laird petition ever did
eventually result in a curtailment zone, Wray would
be in it no matter how far or close it is to the
North Fork.
Stan Holmes said he and the city council have
been discussing strategy for years.
“Three years ago we talked about buying wells
further to the north but we don't know how far we
would have to go,” he said.
If it ever came to where Wray had to provide
augmentation water, Holmes said the municipality
would have to find a source outside the curtailment
zone and engineer a pipeline. He said he has told
his council it likely would take two wells, and to
figure to pay $3,000 to $3,500 per acre, resulting
in an estimated cost of $800,000 to $1 million just
for the wells and land. Holmes said he told the
council to expect to pay another $100,000 per mile
for the pipeline.
The Wray city manager said a lot of people are
asking him why Wray is getting involved in the
buyout, rather than just push through on Pioneer's
and Laird's litigation in hopes of possibly winning.
He said the truth of the matter is the litigation
probably would continue for at least three years,
meaning hefty attorney fees, and there still could
be an unfavorable ruling (for the municipalities) in
the end. Holmes noted the city would not be able to
strategize during that whole time because it would
not know until the end the size of the curtailment
zone.
Municipal water use protected
If the two ballot questions pass, the Yuma
County Water Authority Public Improvement District
will be formed, and it will issue $15 million in
bonds to put toward the $20 million buyout of senior
surface water rights along the North Fork of the
Republican River.
A 20-year lease with the Republican River Water
Conservation District accounts for the other $5
million. Wray City Manager Stan Holmes said it is
important in-town residents in the county understand
language in the lease agreement will protect
municipal water supplies. The language will
stipulate that if any community in the county needs
to augment its water supply, it will be made
available from the North Fork surface flows.
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