ARKANSAS VALLEY IRRIGATORS INCORPORATE “SUPER DITCH COMPANY”
For immediate release
Rocky Ford, Colorado – Shareholders of six major ditch companies from Pueblo County to Kansas today incorporated the Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company. The so-called super ditch company is actually a bargaining agent for irrigators who are interested in leasing water for temporary use by thirsty cities, water districts, and other water users while retaining water ownership and irrigation in the Valley.
John Schweitzer, an incorporator and board member stated that “incorporation of the Super Ditch is a major step by valley irrigators to work together for everyone’s benefit.”
Leasing water is expected to be an attractive alternative to municipalities for drought proofing, drought recovery, ground water recharge, and insurance against interstate compact calls. Municipalities and water agencies from Pueblo to metropolitan Denver have expressed interest in leasing water from the Super Ditch Company. The company already has two letters of intent to lease a total of 15,000 acre-feet per year.
Pete Moore, Vice-Chairman of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, emphasized “the Lower Valley hopes incorporation will usher in a new era of cooperation and mutual benefit to both irrigators and cities alike.”
By leasing water through leases negotiated by the Super Ditch Company, cities can obtain the water they need to serve their residents, while ownership of the water remains in the hands of local valley irrigators. Participating irrigators will forgo irrigation of some of their lands to allow the water to be used by the cities, although most lands will remain in irrigation each year.
It is expected that irrigators will forgo irrigation of approximately 25 percent of their land and lease the water they do not use for municipal and other use. Feasibility studies show that 60,000 acre feet or more of water can be available for lease each year.
Incorporation of the Company culminates efforts begun in 2003 by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District to develop alternatives to historical municipal purchases and transfers of irrigation water rights, which led to the dry up of irrigated land. So-called “buy-and-dry” has taken nearly 80,000 acres – approximately 15 percent – of historically irrigated land out of production in the Lower Arkansas Valley. Notably, the weedy infestations of this formerly irrigated ground provided most of the fuel for the fast-moving wildfire that nearly engulfed the Town of Ordway last month.
The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District began investigating alternatives to historical buy-and-dry shortly after its formation by voters in November 2002. The super ditch company notion arose from leases negotiated by the Palo Verde Irrigation District in California’s Imperial Valley with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (“MET”), the water agency that supplies water to approximately 20 coastal communities.
A Steering Committee composed of valley irrigators visited Imperial Valley in 2007 to learn first hand about the leases Palo Verde had negotiated with MET. The Steering Committee subsequently guided the development of the super ditch company. The Steering Committee was assisted by engineers, economist and attorneys retained by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. Steering Committee members included Dale Mauch, John Schweizer, Jr., Fred Heckman, Burt Heckman, Curtis Temple, Ray Smith, Vernon John Proctor, Herb Reyher, Mike Spady, Garry Clark, Donny Hansen, Gary Hannigan, Robert Valdez, Lee Schweizer, Frank Melinski, Tom Rusler, Mike Hill, Vernon John Proctor, and Dan Hendrich.
Dale Mauch, one of the incorporators and board member, reiterated a message the Steering Committee first heard from irrigators in Palo Verde, “either we learn to work together or the cities will come down and pick us off one by one.”
The Lower Ark District has invested approximately $750,000 in technical engineering feasibility and hydrological studies, economic analyses, and legal investigations in support of irrigators’ interest in developing an ability to stand up to sophisticated Front Range municipal water agencies, who have historically been able to come into the valley and purchase water rights at bargain prices. Many irrigators believe that if they don’t work together, thirsty municipalities will continue to pick them off one by one until the entire Arkansas Valley looks like the wasteland epitomized by the land dried up under the Colorado Canal when those water rights were purchased and transferred to Colorado Springs, Aurora, and Pueblo.
Following incorporation, the incorporators elected an eight member board of directors to run the Company. Directors include Dale Mauch representing Fort Lyon Canal shareholders, John Schweizer, Jr. representing Catlin Canal shareholders, Lee Schweizer representing Otero Canal shareholders, Joel Lundquist representing High Line Canal shareholders, Donny Hansen representing Holbrook Canal shareholders, and Ray Smith representing the Oxford Farmers Canal. Incorporators also elected Burt Heckman and Frank Milenski as at-large directors.
The Super Ditch Company Board scheduled its first meeting for May 15, 2008 to appoint teams to begin detailed lease negotiations with Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority and other entities that have expressed a desire to lease water from the Super Ditch Company. Pete Moore, Vice Chairman of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, reiterated the Board’s commitment to provide engineering, economic, legal, and other technical and staff support to the Super Ditch Company until it becomes self-supporting.
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For more information:
Jay Winner, General Manager, LAVWCD, 719-469-8935
Peter Nichols, Esq., Special Counsel, LAWCD, 303-886-4350