Bump and update: Here’s the lowdown from Mike Peters writing for The Greeley Tribune. From the article:
…even after he was ordered to “cease and desist” in 2005 by the courts, [Craig Kroskob] continued pumping for an estimated 500 days (100 days per well). To stop him, the water court ordered him to appear before Chief Judge James F. Hartmann in the Division 1 Water Court in Greeley. Judge Hartmann fined Kroskob $200 per day, or $100,000 total for the violations. When Kroskob still did not pay, in an August court hearing Judge Hartmann ordered that Kroskob was in contempt of court. Last Friday, the judge had a sheriff’s deputy escort Kroskob from court to the Weld County Jail, where he spent five days — until Tuesday — when he finally paid $100,000 of the fine.
More coverage from 9News.com (Jeffrey Wolf/ Eric Kahnert). From the article:
Wednesday night, Krokob was out of jail, and sat down with 9NEWS to give his side of the story. He says his water is located in an area that doesn’t supply water to the South Platte River…
When a lot of the water-use laws changed in 2003 [Enforcement was stepped and pumpers were required to file a permanent augmentation plan with the State Engineer], the state required well owners taking water from the South Platte to have a plan to replace the water. That protected people who have had water rights the longest. The new laws meant some farmers were not able to use water they had used in the past for their crops. “Since they changed it in ’03, it’s changed everybody’s life. You still got to make your land payments. The banks aren’t going to forgive because they took your water,” Kroskob said. Kroskob showed 9NEWS a document from the Kiowa Bijou Designated Groundwater District showing his wells were within their boundary and not part of the South Platte basin. While he was waiting for the state to make the final decision on the boundary, Kroskob says he kept pumping his wells…
Kroskob says other farmers have had it worse. “Some people haven’t been able to handle it. They’ve lost their farms. A few have committed suicide. They’ve lost their lives,” Kroskob said.
More coverage from The Greeley Tribune (Mike Peters):
Kroskob’s family, however, contends he does have a right to the water. Late Wednesday, Kroskob was ill and could not answer questions. His wife, Lisa, said the family has had engineering studies done that show the water Kroskob was using came from his own groundwater supply and not the South Platte Basin. “We bought this farm — it’s an irrigated farm — we bought the water with it, and the government doesn’t have the right … to take our water,” she said. She said they went to state water authorities with the information, but the authorities didn’t accept it. “They don’t care what we have to say,” she said. “They don’t care about farmers. That’s what we think.”[…]
“We have filed to the court about other parties who were doing the same thing, but they always resolved the complaint,” [District Water Engineer Jim Hall] said. “But Mr. Kroskob didn’t.”
From 9News.com (Jeffrey Wolf/ Eric Kahnert):
The state says this is the first time someone in Colorado has had to do jail time for taking water illegally. State water authorities say the owner of Kroskob Farms in Fort Morgan stole water from wells for about a year and a half. Craig Kroskob, 44, was sentenced to six months in the Weld County Jail. All but 20 days were suspended. Water division engineers say Kroskob used five wells on his property to steal water. After he was caught, the fines against him totaled $128,000.
“When he violated our order, I think he was trying to grow crops, and therefore he wanted to use the water even though it was creating injury to other water users,” Jim Hall with the Division of Water Resources said. “It’s the first time the court has ever put someone in jail for violating an order and continuing to violate. So it is unique in that way.”
More South Platte Basin coverage here.