Gene Kammerzell
WATER WARS
Part I / Part II / Part III
Article in the Greeley Tribute
| My name is Gene Kammerzell. I am a third generation farmer in the South Platte Basin. Although my wife Janet and I grow a specialized nursery crop of shade trees, I grew up in a farming operation where we produced sugar beets, potatoes, alfalfa, corn and fed cattle. I am thoroughly familiar with irrigated agricultural production as I own both a high capacity irrigation well and senior 1865 ditch water rights.
The fighting over water along the South Platte River is NOT simply senior surface right holders claiming that irrigation well pumpers have stolen their water as the propaganda of the day would have you believe. I am both a well user and a 1865 senior surface right holder. I am not fighting myself! |
The issues surrounding the use of water from the South Platte River and it’s alluvial aquifer have been complicated and confusing to most people...and down right devastating if you are a farmer who can not turn on his irrigation well to grow a crop that will pay the bills.
Over the course of the next several days I will use this column to try and unravel what has happened, what is happening, what probably will happen.
Fortunately, there are actions that we, as concerned citizens can do to avoid additional water tragedies in Colorado.
Everyone needs to pay attention to this unfolding water war. It doesn’t matter if you are a Colorado native, a new comer, or just passing through. What is happening will ultimately have a direct impact on you.
If you want to live in a country that is free, be unafraid of your food source and have an economy that continues to provide one of the highest standards of living in the world, you have to get involved in the water issues of Colorado. Seriously, what is happening here is spreading to the other states.
Remember the comical but true take-off on the “Golden Rule”? “He who has the gold rules”. Water is the new gold. He who controls the water...rules. Water control will determine where you can live, how you can live and what, or if, you will eat.
Because mostly farmers and ranchers developed water usage for agricultural, water control in the West has been in their hands since this country was settled. They have demonstrated good stewardship in the management of the precious resources of land and water.
Now, through court maneuvers, lawyers have managed to divert the management of our water resources away from the state engineer who has historically worked with agriculture, and given control to the courts and legal system.
This maneuvering is typical of what is happening to property rights all across our nation. If you own a corner lot where the city fathers would like to see a new Wal-Mart, they will take it from you. If you own a ranch in southern Colorado that the army wants, they will take it. And if you own water that the municipalities and developers want, they will take that too.
Our constitution is being trampled under foot and no one seems to care.
Similar problems are occurring in Nevada, California, and Idaho. A constitutional attorney, Fred Kelly Grant, has studied the problems in these states, and has been instrumental in finding successful solutions to protect the citizens of those states for the past ten years.
Grant discovered that congress mandated that federal management agencies “coordinate” with the local government in “land use inventory, planning, and management actions”. In other words, congress has in place, a provision whereas grass roots organizations of local people can override the bureaucracy, keep the government in check, and restore power back into the hands of the people.
I am delighted to report that Fred Kelly Grant has been studying the property rights problems in Colorado and will be conducting an all day seminar in Fort Morgan this coming August 15. Following the seminar the Property Rights Foundation of the West will be holding their regular monthly meeting and Mr Grant will address individual concerns from the audience during a question and answer session. The seminar is open to the public on a first come, first served basis. Do not miss this opportunity to hear Fred Grant first hand.
We can not afford to loose our domestic food production and see blossoming Farmers Markets close, while lawyers wrestle in court. This whole issue is really about who will control the water that in turn controls the billions in our economy. Will it be the farmers and ranchers who historically have been good stewards, or a bureaucracy which is bought and sold by big money? Big money that has foreign ties to the mid-East.