The City of Aurora is poised to sign a deal that would allow it to periodically divert more than 7 billion gallons of water from the Arkansas River to the city every decade with the purchase of farmland in rural southeast Colorado.
While the $80 million sale would see more water piped away from the already parched Lower Arkansas Valley, the city says the 4,806-acre property in Otero County will continue to be used to raise crops when Aurora isn’t actively tapping its water rights.
“It’s a new idea,” said Aurora Water general manager Marshall Brown. “Nothing like this has really been done exactly in Colorado.”
“We’re not doing what municipalities have done in the past, which is taking land out of agriculture, which does have an economic impact,” utility spokesman Greg Baker said, alluding to so-called “buy-and-dry” transactions in which farmland is bought and left to aridify as the water used for irrigation is siphoned to cities along the Front Range.
Rural communities where large numbers of farmers have sold their water rights to cities are at risk of drying up with the soil — the Lower Arkansas Valley is often cited by sustainability activists as a cautionary example of buy-and-dry run amok, even as other economic stressors persist.
Aurora has inked its share of buy-and-dry deals in the valley, buying up water across the Arkansas Valley starting in the 1970s and laying claim to most of the shares in the Rocky Ford Ditch through a series of purchases that began in the ’80s.
Facing blowback after its initial run on Arkansas River water, Aurora has since agreed to replant native grasses on land in the valley that it has dried out, discouraging the spread of invasive weeds that might otherwise take root. The city also helped pay for water-efficient drip irrigation systems for some of the farmers who sold their Rocky Ford Ditch shares.
City of Aurora officials and representatives of C&A Companies — to whom Aurora will lease the land, structures, equipment and water needed to grow crops — insist the latest transaction is not a buy-and-dry.
“We’re infusing $80 million into, essentially, sustaining the local agricultural communities and the products that are going to some of the other businesses and customers from there,” Brown said. “We’re really infusing stability into the agricultural future of this farming area.”
Otero County commissioner Tim Knabenshue said locals have expressed mixed feelings about Aurora’s latest water deal. He said some Otero County residents believe this will lead to another “dry-up situation,” while others are interested in conducting business with municipalities like Aurora.
Knabenshue said the county hasn’t been involved in the deal but that it will intervene if there are negative impacts, such as an increase in property taxes or if the land dries up despite Aurora’s assurances.
“We understand water is a necessity to function and to grow, which is what Aurora and other municipalities north of us are trying to do,” Knabenshue said. “From our standpoint, as the county, we just want to make sure that when these negotiations take place that both sides can benefit from the deals.”
The property eyed by the city is irrigated by the Catlin Canal, which intercepts the Arkansas River about 40 miles southeast of Pueblo. Shares in the Pisgah Reservoir and the Larkspur and Otero ditches are also included in the purchase, though Baker said they are “supplemental” and represent some storage in that area as well as a small fraction of the water historically used to irrigate the land.
Under existing intergovernmental agreements and the City of Aurora’s new agreement with C&A Companies, the city will be allowed to tap the water rights associated with the Otero County property no more than once a year, three times in any 10-year period.
Each withdrawal generally cannot exceed 7,500 acre-feet, or about 2.4 billion gallons of water, out of a total 10,000-acre-feet-per-withdrawal limit that applies to the city’s use of water rights in the valley.
Aurora is and will continue to be limited to calling on its Arkansas River rights when its storage reservoirs are no more than 60% full.
The Otero County farm has been producing for decades and is currently owned by Phillip Chavez, who serves on the board of the Catlin Canal Company. C&A Companies will use the land to grow smaller grains, grass hay, alfalfa and other produce.
“On the agricultural side, this is really a win-win for us,” Karl Nyquist of C&A Companies said, adding that the economic impact on the county of withdrawing water from the land for three out of every 10 years is expected to be “very minimal.” Nyquist said C&A could even use other water that it controls to irrigate the property when the water owned by Aurora is unavailable.
City water resource manager Rick Kienitz said the company will continue to employ workers on the property to farm, control weeds and dust during “dry” years, which the city will be expected to announce to C&A several months in advance.
“C&A is not going to have to lay people off or reduce their workforce,” Kienitz said. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and we’re going to keep their workforce working.”
Brown also said the project will have a positive impact by ensuring the land continues to be used for agriculture, including the cultivation of feed crops for local livestock producers.
Proceeds from C&A’s farm lease will help replenish the cash and reserves spent by Aurora Water on the purchase. City officials also stated that it may also use development fees to shore up reserves, and Baker said cash could be saved up while the city undertakes a bond issue.
In the past 20 years, Aurora has twice leased water from the river basin — in 2004 and 2005, the city leased rights from the Rocky Ford Highline Canal to help with recovery from the 2002 drought, the news release said. Those leases were in addition to large prior purchases. The release added that the Otero County arrangement will make it easier for Aurora to rely on the Arkansas River for water.
The additional water would be stored in Pueblo Reservoir and traded for the same amount of water in Twin and Turquoise lakes, where the city uses pipelines and pumps to transport water into the South Platte River, which it pulls water from directly.
As for the impact on Aurora Water customers, Brown said the city does not anticipate the deal will result in a noticeable increase in rates.
“If not completely non-existent, it would be so minimal they would never see it,” he said.
Aurora’s City Council is expected to vote March 11 on finalizing the deal, which Baker said would close in early-to-mid April.