From The Trinidad Times (Steve Black):
James G. Felt, a Colorado Springs-based water rights lawyer, was the featured speaker at the meeting, along with Steve Witte, State Engineer for Colorado. Felt, who also teaches at the University of Colorado’s Continuing Education Division in Advanced Real Estate Law and Water Law, commented on the increasing awareness of the scope of the water rights problem. He said one of the reasons he and Witte had come to the meeting was to clear the air, describing the history of the water rights issue in the mountain West, and offering solutions to water users who find it difficult to understand complex, and sometimes confusing, water rights laws.
Felt spoke about the recent controversy in Crowley County, where the city of Colorado Springs bought up a canal long used by area farmers and ranchers. The water from the canal was then diverted to supply the exploding population of Colorado Springs, resulting in economic and environmental devastation for Crowley County. Without water for irrigation, the county’s agricultural land dried up, the land lost most of its value, the tax base collapsed, jobs were lost and essential government services could no longer be maintained. Felt spoke about County 1041 regulations, the state legislature’s reaction to what had happened in Crowley County, and other places in the state. “The purpose of the county 1041 regs is to mitigate the damage caused by drying up land,” Felt said. “If you dry up agricultural land it affects the tax base. The 1041 regs are designed to create a formula for balancing competing interests. By these laws, if you dry up farmland and that causes a loss in the tax base, then that loss has to be countered by a gain somewhere else.”[…]
Ponds are a popular option for many area citizens and communities, as much for beautification as for agricultural purposes. Water held in ponds is subject to evaporation, thus lessening its utility as a resource. Felt emphasized that the ponds are subject to regulations and that those having them or wanting to build them need to know what the rules are regarding ponds. He also discussed the issue of head stabilization ponds, where a rancher can hold water in a pond for a maximum of 72 hours before releasing it downstream. Augmentation, a process where, when water is depleted from a resource it must be replaced from another resource, was also discussed at length by Felt. He has worked on augmentation issues for 35 years, and said that laws vary on the subject, depending on whether the resource used is a tributary or non-tributary source.
More Arkansas River basin coverage here.