You are receiving this newsletter because you are a recognized Douglas County community leader and stakeholder.
As County leaders, we must protect our region. Our quality of life is directly connected to our commitment to build a tomorrow that preserves the best of today. This vision includes protecting our natural resources, utilizing our county’s resources in a fiscally-smart manner, and wisely planning for our future. Thank you for standing with us.
Objections to Water Innovations Target Private Property Rights
Unfounded objections to new, innovative proposals to enhance water security along the Front Range – including in Douglas County – are often cloaked in the disguise of political conservatism.
Yet these emotionally stodgy critics overlook the fact that their complaints run headfirst into one of the bedrock tenets of conservatism: private property rights and free markets.
For years, these strident voices have said that they will do everything in their power to stop you from offering even a small portion of your existing water rights for sale.
Translated, this means these out-of-touch political elites are saying they know better than you what you can or should do with your property.
This has not, of course, stopped many of these same people from supporting “tax and dry” schemes across Colorado (in which the government taxes everybody and then hypocritically buys water rights). The scheme then provides just a sliver of the compensation at a far lower right than what the private, free market can offer.
For many farmers and ranchers, the economic value of their property are their water rights, which is very often their most valuable asset.
Like any other private property asset, you should have the freedom to determine what is best for you and your family, including selling something to support or expand your operations, or for personal needs.
These anti-private property voices would be aghast if a landowner was questioned by community leaders about selling off a tractor, some cattle, or if they cashed in an investment to send a son or daughter to college.
Yet they think nothing of telling owners of water rights that any sale should be off the table.
These anti-private property rights voices believe they have every right to voice their views on you. But let’s not kid ourselves and call their concerns “conservative.”
Recent Headlines
Colorado Springs agrees to give up water rights for Summit County reservoirs
Colorado Springs has agreed to give up water rights tied to reservoirs in the Blue River basin in exchange for the ability to expand Montgomery Reservoir on the east side of the Continental Divide without opposition from Western Slope entities.
…After negotiations with eight opposers, including the Colorado River Water Conservation District, Summit County, and the town of Breckenridge, the parties are set to approve an agreement that would cancel the conditional water rights for Spruce Lake and Mayflower reservoirs.
…In exchange, the Western Slope parties will not oppose Colorado Springs’ plan to enlarge Montgomery Reservoir to hold an additional 8,100 acre-feet of water for a total capacity of about 13,800 acre-feet. That project is expected to enter the permitting phase in 2025.
…Each year, transmountain diversions take about 500,000 acre-feet from the Colorado River basin to the Front Range. Colorado Springs is a large water user that draws from this vast network of tunnels and conveyance systems that move water from the mountainous headwaters on the west side of the Continental Divide to the east side, where the state’s biggest cities are located.
Colorado snowpack has rebounded, but it’s too early to promise a water win for rivers and reservoirs
... Steven Fassnacht, a professor of snow hydrology at Colorado State University, said major storms in January helped make up for lost ground quickly, but warned that it’s too early to know if the gains will continue.
... Even if Colorado ends with an exceptionally snowy winter, it won’t fix long-term water shortages in key Colorado River reservoirs in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, Fassnacht said. That river system has suffered under a climate-fueled megadrought that would need multiple “big snow years” in Colorado to fix.
Colorado lawmakers will push even harder in 2024 to replace lawns. Here are the other water bills on tap.
Colorado lawmakers will be asked to weigh in on more than a half-dozen proposed water bills this year that will likely include support for improving the water quality in Grand Lake, significant new funding for replacing thirsty lawns, a pilot program to test using natural systems — such as plants and soils, rather than water treatment plants, to clean up water — and new state-level protection for wetlands.
Did you know? 80 percent of the state's water originates along Western Slope rivers, but more than 80 percent of Colorado's population lives on the Front Range.
Upcoming News from DCFF
Every other week, DCFF will report on important news and challenges impacting our community. We hope you will stay engaged and connected with us.
