From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
“Our intent is not to administer the law in a way that puts people out of business, but we have to administer water rights,” Wolfe said. “When the governor (Bill Ritter) asked me to take this job, I told him I would uphold the constitution, knowing that it would affect people’s livelihoods.”
At the time, in 2007, the state was dealing with compact issues on the Republican River and a water rights dispute in the South Platte basin that had the effect of shutting down many high-volume irrigation wells. The state also was looking at irrigation consumptive use rules that affected the Arkansas River Compact. Those rules will go into effect Jan. 1, and will require irrigators to account for surface-water improvements such as sprinklers, drip irrigation and ditch lining. Wolfe said more than a year of meetings helped the state explain its position to farmers and modify the rules to make them less onerous. He said he hopes to achieve the same results by having his staff meet with those affected by the seep ditch rules…
Seep ditches sprang up to use return flows — water that runs off fields and is not used to grow crops — from larger irrigation systems. As a result, they generally have decreed water rights that are junior to mutual irrigation ditches. The state says those rights must be curtailed until downstream senior rights are satisfied. Seep ditch owners say they have used the water for decades — 100 years or more in some cases — without complaint from the downstream ditches. More than 40 farms are at risk. They say the water was never available before it was claimed in seep ditch rights, and would have never made it back to the stream, anyway. Therefore, they argue, any downstream call should be regarded as a futile call — legally available, but unable to be physically delivered. The water rights of downstream owners have been filled at the expense of other rights upstream that are senior to the seep ditch rights, said Steve Witte, Water Division 2 engineer. Witte admitted the seep ditch rights have never been enforced by him or his predecessors. He said that’s a mistake, and farmers who have used the water have benefitted at the expense of others.
More Arkansas River basin coverage here.