In 1969 the state legislature passed the Water Rights Determination and Administration Act. This act was the beginning of the bureaucratic nightmare that now ensnares well pumping along the Platte. It provided that irrigation wells be included in the priority system of the river and that augmentation water be provided to the surface stream to offset any depletions to the river that well pumping might produce. This was done despite the warnings made by Dr. Robert E. Glover of CSU in a commissioned study by the State of Colorado. Dr. Glover, whose work is still cited, said that the ground water movement was too “sluggish” to be considered along with surface water and that do so would be “dangerous”.

In 2002 the Colorado courts removed the state engineer from regulating the river and the court took control by issuing decrees. This court action, along with the 1969 Act, has resulted in numerous law suits and settlements to where now the amount of water needed to augment a well has gone from 5% to 100%. New demands have been made which require that one must predict how much the aquifer will be depleted in the future due to current pumping and provide for that water currently, even though there is no scientific evidence that such a depletion will ever indeed occur. In addition, former Governor Romer in 1997 made Colorado a part of the Three States Agreement in which Colorado is obligated to supply 28,000 acre feet of water per year to Nebraska for Endangered Species. As a consequence of these demands, there is simply not enough water available in the river to supply the augmentation water required to operate the wells and they have been either drastically curtailed or outright shut down.

Under our former river regulation the system worked. The Morgan County Economic Development Corporation, through a CSU study, estimates that the direct loss to agriculture is going to be 2 to 3 Billion dollars. Since each farm dollar is filtered through the economy at least 7 times, a conservative loss to the Colorado economy for 2007 will be 12 to 21 Billion dollars.

To the financial ruin of hundreds of farm families, the Colorado government has now reversed itself based upon the supposition ... not proof, of the objectors and farming operations on tens of thousands of acres have been shut down.

Are we now going to out source our food production to China and third world countries like is happening in the manufacturing sector? Remember the poisoned pet food this past winter? That poisoned wheat gluten could have just as easily ended up in your Wheaties. Where is the corn coming from that will be necessary for Governor Ritter’s ambitious ethanol plans if there is no water to raise a crop?