AURORA | The City of Aurora is poised to sign a deal that would allow it to periodically divert more than 7 billion gallons of water from the Arkansas River to the city every decade with the purchase of farmland in rural southeast Colorado.
While the $80 million sale would see more water piped away from the already parched Lower Arkansas Valley, the city says the 4,806-acre property in Otero County will continue to be used to raise crops when Aurora isn’t actively tapping its water rights.
“It’s a new idea,” said Aurora Water general manager Marshall Brown. “Nothing like this has really been done exactly in Colorado.”
“We’re not doing what municipalities have done in the past, which is taking land out of agriculture, which does have an economic impact,” utility spokesman Greg Baker said, alluding to so-called “buy-and-dry” transactions in which farmland is bought and left to aridify as the water used for irrigation is siphoned to cities along the Front Range.
Rural communities where large numbers of farmers have sold their water rights to cities are at risk of drying up with the soil — the Lower Arkansas Valley is often cited by sustainability activists as a cautionary example of buy-and-dry run amok, even as other economic stressors persist.
Aurora has inked its share of buy-and-dry deals in the valley, buying up water across the Arkansas Valley starting in the 1970s and laying claim to most of the shares in the Rocky Ford Ditch through a series of purchases that began in the ’80s.
Facing blowback after its initial run on Arkansas River water, Aurora has since agreed to replant native grasses on land in the valley that it has dried out, discouraging the spread of invasive weeds that might otherwise take root. The city also helped pay for water-efficient drip irrigation systems for some of the farmers who sold their Rocky Ford Ditch shares.
City of Aurora officials and representatives of C&A Companies — to whom Aurora will lease the land, structures, equipment and water needed to grow crops — insist the latest transaction is not a buy-and-dry.
“We’re infusing $80 million into, essentially, sustaining the local agricultural communities and the products that are going to some of the other businesses and customers from there,” Brown said. “We’re really infusing stability into the agricultural future of this farming area.”
Otero County commissioner Tim Knabenshue said locals have expressed mixed feelings about Aurora’s latest water deal. He said some Otero County residents believe this will lead to another “dry-up situation,” while others are interested in conducting business with municipalities like Aurora.
Knabenshue said the county hasn’t been involved in the deal but that it will intervene if there are negative impacts, such as an increase in property taxes or if the land dries up despite Aurora’s assurances.
“We understand water is a necessity to function and to grow, which is what Aurora and other municipalities north of us are trying to do,” Knabenshue said. “From our standpoint, as the county, we just want to make sure that when these negotiations take place that both sides can benefit from the deals.”
The property eyed by the city is irrigated by the Catlin Canal, which intercepts the Arkansas River about 40 miles southeast of Pueblo. Shares in the Pisgah Reservoir and the Larkspur and Otero ditches are also included in the purchase, though Baker said they are “supplemental” and represent some storage in that area as well as a small fraction of the water historically used to irrigate the land.
Under existing intergovernmental agreements and the City of Aurora’s new agreement with C&A Companies, the city will be allowed to tap the water rights associated with the Otero County property no more than once a year, three times in any 10-year period, with each withdrawal not to exceed 7,500 acre-feet, or about 2.4 billion gallons of water.
Aurora is and will continue to be limited to calling on its Arkansas River rights when its storage reservoirs are no more than 60% full.
The Otero County farm has been producing for decades and is currently owned by Phillip Chavez, who serves on the board of the Catlin Canal Company. C&A Companies will use the land to grow smaller grains, grass hay, alfalfa and other produce.
“On the agricultural side, this is really a win-win for us,” Karl Nyquist of C&A Companies said, adding that the economic impact on the county of withdrawing water from the land for three out of every 10 years is expected to be “very minimal.” Nyquist said C&A could even use other water that it controls to irrigate the property when the water owned by Aurora is unavailable.
City water resource manager Rick Kienitz said the company will continue to employ workers on the property to farm, control weeds and dust during “dry” years, which the city will be expected to announce to C&A several months in advance.
“C&A is not going to have to lay people off or reduce their workforce,” Kienitz said. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and we’re going to keep their workforce working.”
Brown also said the project will have a positive impact by ensuring the land continues to be used for agriculture, including the cultivation of feed crops for local livestock producers.
Proceeds from C&A’s farm lease will help replenish the cash and reserves spent by Aurora Water on the purchase. City officials also stated that it may also use development fees to shore up reserves, and Baker said cash could be saved up while the city undertakes a bond issue.
In the past 20 years, Aurora has twice leased water from the river basin — in 2004 and 2005, the city leased rights from the Rocky Ford Highline Canal to help with recovery from the 2002 drought, the news release said. Those leases were in addition to large prior purchases. The release added that the Otero County arrangement will make it easier for Aurora to rely on the Arkansas River for water.
The additional water would be stored in Pueblo Reservoir and traded for the same amount of water in Twin and Turquoise lakes, where the city uses pipelines and pumps to transport water into the South Platte River, which it pulls water from directly.
As for the impact on Aurora Water customers, Brown said the city does not anticipate the deal will result in a noticeable increase in rates.
“If not completely non-existent, it would be so minimal they would never see it,” he said.
Aurora’s City Council is expected to vote March 11 on finalizing the deal, which Baker said would close in early-to-mid April.
I live in Crowley County, just north of Otero. The history of Aurora snatching water rights in these very real and destructive “buy-and-dry” schemes has left a VERY bitter taste in the mouths of farmers of the Arkansas River Valley. The cities destroyed the rural lives of thousands of people here, and we’re not too keen on the idea of continued desiccation of our lands.
For the sake and respect of humanity and decency, I hope you know what you’re doing.
Exactly!
Where are all the fruit orchards, fields of cantaloupe, tomatoes and other vegetables of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s in south eastern Colorado? Have you ever driven down hiway 71 from Limon to Ordway to Rocky Ford? Have you ever seen the cactus bloom along that stretch? Maybe every 7 years! Does Aurora need that water for the lawns, golf courses, landscaping of future growth when farming, agriculture has already been negatively impacted? Who are you going to feed during years of drought?
Aurora is already cloud seeding. Leave the water where it is. Stop investing in other’s water, stop building yet another golf course, stop financing the water at the detriment of homeowners monthly bills. You offer open meetings, yet the Anadarko deal being finalized on March 11, 2024 has never been mentioned. STOP!
This is what they told us in Crowley county please don’t listen to Aurora cuz they are full of bull the same thing that they told us now drive threw our county and choke to death on the dirt.
Foot in the door is all those greedy bastards need.
Right Fred. I’m from R.F. & am aware of assholes selling water rights for years. I’m 74 y.o., now & glad I won’t have to witness my Dear Rocky Ford blow away.
Why isn’t fred’s comment discriminated against, bastards?
Discrimination in otero county
Marshall Brown, as I’ve said before, is a good businessman. He’s not in a business job. He’s a public servant. Now he’s the leader of a farm, nowhere close to Aurora and will use this as a ploy to say, ” it’s all about the water rights”.
We, the water users, will now pay off the mortgage to own that land that Marshal Brown’s, “company” controls. Get my drift? I used to say sooner or later, our City Council will understand the Empire Mr. Brown has built with Aurora water users money as our monthly bills have risen tremendously over the years. It’s now obvious to me it will be later: much, much later.
Citizens of Aurora and City Council be advised, Marshall Brown is not your friend.
Why isn’t fred’s comment discriminated against, bastards?
This is predation by Aurora on those in the state with less power and less financial resources. Will it result in buy and dry immediately? No. Will it ultimately? Yes, absolutely, and I say this as a water engineer in the Arkansas Valley. Dry up of this ground is inevitable, as it is in all purchases of agricultural water by cities, because when the growth reaches the point that it demands all that the city can provide to the taps, all of the water must be transferred and thus the dry up has to occur.
Let me also say that this deal represents the very worst aspects of speculation, secrecy, and profiteering on the part of all parties involved. No one in the local communities knew who was involved, what dollar amounts were being discussed, what the time frames involved were going to be – nothing. It is plainly an outrage of social injustice that water – the most essential of all needs for all living things on Earth – can be treated as just another commodity to be bought and sold and the people who live with and around that water get no more input or say over their fate than someone on the other side of the planet might get to have. It’s the people of Otero County that will feel the effects of this – not Karl Nyquist, on his golf course somewhere, nor Bill Grasmick, padding his bank account for his descendants, and not Phillip Chavez, as he takes his 40 million dollars back to his home state of Arizona. It will be the farmers left behind who have to contend with inflated land and water prices, the young people who might have wished for a farming life but who can no longer afford it, and the old people who suffer from lack of resources due to a diminishing economy – these people, these are the ones who will be feeling the effects of this for all time now while Aurora moves hundreds of thousands of more residents into this state.
The state should outlaw private investment groups from purchasing, aggregating, and selling agricultural water rights. The state should outlaw speculative water purchases by municipalities and force them to grapple with the people and water that they have, instead of incentivizing further growth and by forcing the transfers of water to support it.
Very well written. The only time this state even knows there is a “Southeastern Colorado” is when they want to rape our farms! When the cities take all our water, what will be left to feed the idiots along the front range? The Ordway land that sold their water to the cities went from being one of the largest producers of agricultural products to nothing but tumbleweeds…..and now most of the land won’t even grow a tumbleweed. People need to ask themselves if we needed something the cities could provide us, would the cities be willing to help us? I think not!
Not sure how many here have read “The Lorax” but those of us in the Arkansas Valley didn’t have to, we are living it. I hope the money is worth it to the people selling away what is left of us, soon the last pond will dry, the last crop will be harvested, the last animals will migrate and what is left of the farm families will be forced to pack up and move to greener pastures if the cities have left any. Enjoy lab grown foods because soon that’s all we will have.
There is a point that the cities cannot continue to expand as there will not be the land base needed to feed the world, and not enough water resources to support it. Our natural resources are limited and we need to be proactive to conserve them and use wisely. The expansion of the cities removes soil from producing food and fiber, reduces our air quality, and removes water for agriculture production. That’s 3 natural resources that we cannot replace!!!
I agree with the residence of Arkansas Valley. Water is the most precious product we can have. Aurora increase water needs are due to over growth population .
Right Fred. I’m from R.F. & am aware of assholes selling water rights for years. I’m 74 y.o., now & glad I won’t have to witness my Dear Rocky Ford blow away.
Why isn’t fred’s comment discriminated against, bastards?
Freedom of speech doesn’t exist in this SMALL-TOWN forum.
The United Nations should declare the whole area as NON-SUSTAINABLE due to excessive inhabitation by humans.
Too, too many out-of-staters moving into Colorado cities and their suburbs. This has to stop! Already Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California sucks our Colorado River water beyond capacity. Now we’ll have local water vampires to deal with. Aurora should be looking at their neighboring Denver suburbs for solutions. But the private company seeks the cheapest and weakest method to GRAB resources from our most VIPs, our farmers and ranchers. SHAME!!