Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman
Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center
1300 Broadway, 10th Floor
Denver, Colorado 80203

Dear Attorney General Coffman,

Regarding: Fraudulent Water Accounting Complaint July 6, 2015

Please consider this my formal complaint as pertains to what I deduce as fraudulent accounting of South Platte River water in Colorado.

Reason for my Fraudulent Water Accounting complaint:

Here’s what happen. I live on my 145 year old farm, located near Greeley, CO and on what is considered as a part of the flood plain of the South Platte River.

Most of my 78 years have been spent living here, where my family homesteaded in the late 1860’s.

My passion for water was instilled in me by my father Charles W. Sylvester Sr. He passed along water studies by my forefathers, and taught me how to “read the river.”

Sixty five years ago, my classmate Ray Sauer and I rode our bicycles in and around an abandoned beet pulp storage pit, east of LaSalle. Remembering the pit, which had water at the bottom in the deepest parts about 20 feet below surface, I recently asked Ray what he remembered. He confirmed there was scant water at the bottom.

Beginning around 2006, the water has risen to about 2 feet from the surface near the pit, now filled in.

With the 2013 flood and this past spring’s rains, it’s surfaced.

This high water table is destroying crops, as well as the land for future crop production.

Why has this happen? Over augmentation of the upper end of the S. Platte Basin, as confirmed by Dr. Reagan Waskom’s study – HB 1278, completed December 2013.

The junior lower end told Judge Roger Klein that senior well pumping was causing them depletions in the upper S. Platte Basin, Denver to Greeley, thus limiting instream flow for the lower end. They didn’t have to show scientific burden of proof of harm, and Klein ruled in their favor.

A drain (seepage) ditch, which runs through my farm, has never once stopped flowing in over a hundred and forty years. Therefore, I don’t believe pumping by the senior water right owners caused depletions.
When the Pioneers settled along the S. Platte in the Godfrey Bottom area, this is what they found.

Some of the land was swampy, had standing water, cattails and reeds. So they dug this drain ditch (known as Latham Drain) with ox teams, horses and slips. This drained the standing water so the farmers could began using the fertile land for crop production.

The Latham Drain has drained water continuously for over 140 years.

There’s negligible difference between times of severe drought, high precipitation, Allotment Quantity usage, and the increased river flow due to the past 9 years senior water rights have been denied use of their Allotment Quantities from wells.

The water has drained from surrounding areas including east of LaSalle. Water still runs downhill by gravity flow whether above or below the earth’s surface.

The Godfrey Ditch Company was formed March 10, 1870 in Weld County, Territory of Colorado, with Allotment Quantities for the stockholders.

The nearby town of Gilcrest, is being subjected to high water levels, due to the over augmentation. This is destroying the town’s sewage treatment plant, flooding basements and destroying essential crop land.
As my father used to tell me, when the river was running high or flooding, the water flowed outward under pressure and helped fill the aquifer. Now the aquifer is theoretically filled with water placed on the surface to fill the aquifer below.

Water rights were also bought by a water district, which then dried up productive food production farm land.

When the river receded, the water flowed gradually back to the river and helped develop a continuous instream flow. Depending on snowpack/precipitation, the river would generally dry up around Kersey, CO. in the early 1900’s.

Sometimes there wasn’t enough water to fulfill Allotment Quantity delivery for either the most senior water rights on the upper end, or junior water rights on the lower end.

It is my humble opinion, Judge Klein was wrong in his decision to shut down the wells. What I’ve learned is that he was allegedly subjected to a combo of, withholding critical scientific information, and undue influence by power brokers. This resulted in his “Takings without just compensation” ruling.

Please note that where the majority of senior water rights are, from Greeley to Denver we refer to the judge with honor, as Judge Roger Klein. Contrarily, on numerous occasions we’ve heard those living in the lower South Platte Basin, or about Ft. Morgan to the Colorado Nebraska border, refer to the judge as “Roger.” Probably because Judge Klein had a law practice in Sterling, where junior water rights oppose every move senior water rights have tried, to use their own property.

In sporting event terminology, it sure looks evident the lower end “home towned” the upper end.
Coming with the 10 year mark of “senior water rights owners denied use of property” (aka no well pumping), new concerns loom on abandonment. We’re already hearing about water brokers trying to claim those wells as “abandoned,” and file on them.

If those in charge of managing our water according to *Colorado Water Law had adhered to our first in time, first in right law, I strongly believe we wouldn’t be subjected to the severe damages brought about by Fraudulent Water Accounting.

Bottom line: The upper S. Platte Basin has become the storage area to insure more water from instream flow for the lower S. Platte to use.

Historically, in the early 1900’s, the lower S. Platte Basin had very little water to use after the spring’s May and June runoff. Starting around the first part of August through the end of October, the river usually dried up.

I have in my possession, an 1893 book with flow charts, dates and documents that back up my statements.
It wasn’t until additional irrigation development in the upper S. Platte Basin, with water being placed on the land and the non-consumptive use, water flowed underground back to the river. This insured a continuous water flow seasonally later and farther east.

In hydrological terms, this is called timing; delaying the river flow to insure a continuous instream flow of water in the river.

If you travel on I -76 to the Sterling area and east, you will see an abundant number of pivots on a circle of land, where acreage was historically fallow semi-arid desert. The water run through these pivot irrigation systems are primarily from a well near the circle.

Now, the junior lower end not only has sufficient water from the S. Platte river flow to irrigate their crops, they have additional water to augment new wells.

It’s common knowledge the junior lower end users also have enough surplus water to sell to the electrical generating plant at Brush, to federal for the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP), and perhaps to wind turbines and ethanol.

Yes. I believe the junior lower end users are making millions by destroying the rights of senior upper end users, and harming a multitude of private property owners.

Thank you for the time and effort you’ll take, looking into my Fraudulent Water Accounting complaint. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Please contact me anytime at: H# (970) 284-6874 * C# (970) 430-0110

Thank you,

Charles W. Sylvester

*Colorado Water Law

Prior Appropriation – First in time, first in right. You must have “water” to put to beneficial use and obtain a decree. In other words, first in time first in right - goes with the flow.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado states: Sec. 5. The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the State of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the State, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 6. The right to divert the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses shall never be denied.

Constitution does not differentiate between ground, surface etc. – it simply states “water;” for it is a given that all water is connected. Therefore, the first date one puts unappropriated “water” to beneficial use (regardless pivot, well, ditch), it is the original and only date that should be honored as vested property.

Only “unappropriated” water may be filed on. By approximately 1879, the entire upper end of the S. Platte basin had been appropriated and are considered senior. Water rights further downstream have later dates and are therefore junior.

Charles W. Sylvester
P.O. Box 155 LaSalle, Colorado 80645
Farm_Cowboy@msn.com (970) 284-6874

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman
Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center
1300 Broadway, 10th Floor
Denver, Colorado 80203

Regarding: Fraudulent Water Accounting Complaint June 29, 2015

Dear Attorney General Coffman,

Please consider this my formal complaint regarding the fraudulent accounting of water as pertains to the South Platte River in Colorado.

Reason for my complaint:

Here’s what happen. I live on my 145 year old farm, located near Greeley, CO and on what is considered as a part of the flood plain of the South Platte River.

Most of my 78 years have been spent living here, for my family homesteaded here in the late 1860’s.
Having a passion for water was instilled in me by my father Charles W. Sylvester Sr. He passed along our forefathers studies, and taught me how to “read the river.”

Sixty five years ago, my classmate Ray Sauer and I rode our bicycles in and around an abandoned beet pulp storage pit. Remembering the pit, which is about 20 feet deep, had water at the bottom, I recently called Ray to ask what he remembered. He confirmed there was scant water at the bottom.

Over the last several years, the water has risen to about 2 feet from the surface of the pit. With the 2013 flood and this past spring’s rains, it’s surfaced.

Why has this happen? Over augmentation of the upper end of the S. Platte Basin, as confirmed by Dr. Reagan Waskom’s study – HB 1278, completed December 2013.

Though my home was built higher than said flood plain, and even higher than the historic water table, on September 13, 2013, it was subjected to 17” of rushing river…on the first floor! In addition to the mental and physical strain of cleanup, it took over a year and has accrued $300,000 in cleanup and restoration.
We believe the 17” inches was completely unnecessary for these reasons: 1) Due to over-augmentation (see WAS case following) the upper end of the S. Platte basin has been overhydrated. Over hydration has risen the historic water table of approximately 20 feet, to an approximate non-historic 3 feet and surfacing; one could claim this 17 foot rise easily converts to the 17 inches on the first level of our home.
In addition to the man-made rise in the water table, other contributions to the catastrophic flood include: Advent of streets/highways/rooftops, improper ditch diversions, lack of S. Platte river maintenance.

Today, nearly 2 years later, the water table has risen to points of surfacing. With the advent of the wet April/June it was pretty darn traumatizing moving everything to the highest points on the farm, then wondering if the river would flood out our home again, as we watched it continually approach our patio - then recede.

April 17, 2014, we asked Governor Hickenlooper to take action regarding dredging under the Hwy 85 Bridge between Greeley and La Salle, and to deploy an Executive Order to allow senior water rights to pump. To date, nothing has been done

Background

2006 was a pivotal year on the South Platte River:

Why?

1. Lower end junior water users (east of Kersey) claimed upper end senior users used up all the S. Platte water and caused depletions of such severity they did not have any water.
2. To satisfy their complaint, Judge Roger Klein (Well Augmentation Subdistrict (WAS) case) ordered the shutdown of senior wells.
3. Governor Bill Owens signed a 5 page agreement (South Platte River Implementation Program (PRRIP)) with Governor’s Freudenthal (WY) and Heineman (NE) and DOI Secretary Kempthorne, committing Colorado assets (water) and indebting the state (financial commitment) without a vote of the citizenry. Colorado and Wyoming will jointly contribute $30 million. The remaining portion will come in terms of land and water from the states. In other words, when the lower end complained they didn’t have water, Governor Owens “found” enough to give away several thousand acre feet to ESA in Lexington, NE.

Colorado Water Law

Prior Appropriation – First in time, first in right. You must have “water” to put to beneficial use and obtain a decree. In other words, first in time first in right - goes with the flow.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado states: Sec. 5. The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the State of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the State, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided.

Sec. 6. The right to divert the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses shall never be denied.

Constitution does not differentiate between ground, surface etc. – it simply states “water;” for it is a given that all water is connected. Therefore, the first date one puts unappropriated “water” to beneficial use (regardless pivot, well, ditch), it is the original and only date that should be honored as vested property.

Only “unappropriated” water may be filed on. By approximately 1879, the entire upper end of the S. Platte basin had been appropriated and are considered senior. Water rights further downstream have later dates and are therefore junior.

Analysis

General Assembly drafted and Governor Hickenlooper signed into law, a study of the S. Platte River basin known as HB 1278. In this study, Dr. Reagan Waskom found over augmentation, likely due to the shutdown of wells on the upper end of the S. Platte, contributed to the non-historic high water table. Dr. Waskom made a general hydrological recommendation that to lower the water table, well pumping should ensue.

Conclusion

Knowing some of the contributing factors to the non-historic high water table gives reasons enough to believe who-so-ever is managing the vested property of water rights owners is engaged in fraudulent water accounting.

In many ways, this also smacks of embezzlement, in that water rights owners have no choice but to entrust their vested property to others to manage, and those managers are grossly mismanaging said property and converting it into another use.

Attorney General Coffman, I want you to fix this problem.

Why? Senior water rights owners are being cruelly (albeit illegally) denied use of their vested property. The ripple effect of this denied use is causing severe damage to my property!

Here are some steps I want you to take that will help fix this problem.

1. Identify those engaged in fraudulent water accounting.
2. Hold them accountable to curing their takings through just compensation to senior water rights owners.
   Inform Governor Hickenlooper that because there are no open waters of the U.S. in Colorado, he should order federal to stay the hell out of the way of property owners along the S. Platte River. They have a right to maintain their property without fear of obstructionism and fines by EPA, Army Corps et al.
3. Stop the man-made manipulations of the S. Platte River’s in-stream flow; it is destroying Agriculture; Colorado’s most historically reliable economic foundation.
4. Stop use of the upper end of the S. Platte Basin as an underground storage (reservoir); it is rising the water table.

Recommend Governor Hickenlooper withdraw Colorado from the PRRIP. It serves only as a carriage vessel to move water past its historic dry up (around Kersey), and easterly where everyone knows it’s being diverted and sold.

It is my understanding that additional parties, including Charles W. Sylvester and Gene and Jan Kammerzell, will be filing their own independent Fraudulent Water Accounting complaints.

I expect your immediate attention to addressing my Fraudulent Water Accounting complaint. Taking the steps I recommended will truly re-establish justice for many injured parties, and return our rights to “safety and happiness” on our property.

Please contact me anytime! H# (970) 284-6874 * C# (970) 430-0222 I want this fixed!

Thank you,

Roni Bell Sylvester