A DIFFERING VIEW: South Platte solutions exist
The Rocky’s July 8 editorial (“The S. Platte quandary”) is dead wrong; there are breakthrough actions that can make the limited water resource go further under existing law.
Any engineer will tell you that if you manage the hydrologic unit rather than lawyer it, you can optimize our water resources.
First, to avoid the loss of 100,000 acres of irrigated land in the Lower South Platte by 2030, urban communities must enact more restrictive ordinances limiting lawns for future growth.
Second, grant the state water engineer the ability to determine augmentation plans for wells and other uses where there is administrative flexibility. Such authority was mistakenly given to the courts in 2003 where there is no room for science.
Third, there is a wealth of evidence that shows that we are not depleting the ground water in the South Platte alluvium — the ground water recovery rate is swift.
Wells should be permitted to operate without augmentation plans where they will not draw down the water levels in the river and interfere with senior downstream rights. This is classic engineering management.
Finally, establish a Lower South Platte River Utility that can buy and lease back water to farmers using conservation-type easements to keep water on the land. This would protect land values without eroding property tax revenues and provide a single source for urban communities to “lease” water rights under rotational fallowing.
These changes alone would eliminate the need for these communities to cherry- pick senior water rights from family farms.
Eric Eidsness is a resident of Fort Collins.