WATER WARS
Part I / Part II / Part III
| If you were dying because of a brain tumor would you consult with a neurosurgeon or a malpractice attorney? Obviously you would want the specialist that would be best for your immediate situation, that being a surgeon who had the skills to remove the cause of your pending demise.
The same is true in our water debacle in the South Platte River Basin. We need the guidance of specialists who have proven capabilities to manage the river system ... namely the engineers in the state engineers office. The longer the water lawyers beat each other up in court, the more money they make and the worse the situation becomes for production agriculture. |
The fighting over the irrigation wells is not where the real battle lies. Rather, it is in the control of the surface water itself. By demanding surface water to be placed back into the river to augment wells, farmers are relinquishing the senior rights to the augmentation water in favor of the now junior ground water rights. When the required percentage of augmentation was small, this was a price that most well pumpers were willing to pay. But now that the augmentation demands are at 100 percent, and possible future depletions must be paid for in advance, more surface water is required to operate a well than it can produce. This is a losing situation that no farmer can afford to pay.
What then is going to happen? Irrigated farming in Colorado will die. The fresh produce, and green fields that make northern Colorado beautiful will be gone. The engine that drives our economy will be shut down. The municipalities who will be in a position to hoard the water will sell it to the highest bidder. Maybe that will be corporate farming interests that will bring farming back ... but it will be at a greatly increased price to you the consumer. The corporate farms will be run by managers demanding the greatest profit for their investors in a global market. If it is more profitable for them to market their production overseas the local people will go without.
This insanity must be stopped. We the people still have the power in this country, but that power is only exercised when we turn off the TV and get involved. Go to the county commissioners meetings and demand that they stand up against this water grab that will devastate all of our lives. There is more undeveloped water in Colorado that we are not being told about. There is a huge volume of Colorado water flowing out of the state on the western slope to California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona that is rightfully ours. This water is a political hot potato that every politician is afraid to touch. But does it make sense to let this Colorado water flow out of state and go undeveloped for Coloradans because the West Slope Coalition says “Not one more drop for the East Slope”?
We have to develop more water storage. The environmentalists object to any proposal that will dam up water and conserve it. It is time to look at the environmental devastation that will result from drying up all of North Eastern Colorado. Prior to irrigation this was a bunch grass prairie. There wasn’t enough water to support sod forming grasses. Do we want to go back to that? The higher up the mountain the water is stored, the more flexible is it’s use, and the more times it can be used. It makes more sense to have high mountain storage, but underground storage on the plains should also be studied.
Politics, corporate greed, unbridled government and an apathetic populus will destroy us as Americans. We the people need to get involved. Your neighbor can’t do it for you. If you cherish what you have and look to a brighter future for your children you need to get in the fight now.
Come to the Fred Kelly Grant Seminar on August 15, and learn how the people of California, Nevada, and Idaho stopped the same thing. If you don’t join in now, next year will be too late!
Contact Information:
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Country Steak Out Restaurant
19592 E. 8th Avenue
Fort Morgan, CO
(970) 867-7887
Workshop: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
How you trake control:
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
For More Information Visit:
www.prfw.org
or
www.stewards.us
or call
970-842-5575, 970-847-3469, 970-522-1829