| 8/10/2006 9:14:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Water district proposes buying land, water, reservoir
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
An Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District plan to purchase land, water and a reservoir at the base of Trout Creek Pass received preliminary support last week from Chaffee County Commissioners.
Commissioners held a special meeting Thursday to consider the district request for county support. Formal support enhances the district application for a Colorado Division of Wildlife grant worth as much as $8 million to pay for the project.
The project calls for placing about 2,200 acres in a conservation easement to be used in perpetuity for agriculture and wildlife habitat. The land, mostly owned by Paul Moltz, who also owns the water rights and reservoir in the deal, is located east of the Arkansas River Valley near Johnson Village.
"It's a great idea," commissioner Jerry Mallett said. "If we can put that kind of real estate in protected status, It would be outstanding."
Glenn Everett, water district board of chairman, said the project would keep one of the oldest water rights in Chaffee County - the Moltz 1872 right on Trout Creek - tied to land in the county.
It would also protect habitat for hundreds of deer and elk that graze on the property.
"One of the main things we've talked about through the years," Everett, a former county commissioner, said, "is keeping open space and protecting our water and this does both."
He confirmed this is the first conservation easement the water district has been involved with.
Water rights in the deal are enough to irrigate 600 acres, Everett said. But the district hopes to retain the flexibility to occasionally interrupt irrigation and use the water in other ways, such as to complement the Buena Vista supply in dry years.
"It's some real old water we can keep in the county and it can be used in more than one way," Everett said.
Buena Vista town trustees recently offered tentative support of the plan.
"We come into it with a bit of caution, but support nonetheless," Buena Vista planner Ryan Mahoney, said, adding that trustees want to ensure the project won't negatively affect the town water supply or quality.
A few ranchers in the Cottonwood Creek area attended the meeting to acquire more information about how the proposal would affect their water supplies.
"This becomes very involved in terms of other users of Cottonwood Creek," rancher Bryce Kelly, said. "I think there are a lot of questions.
"If the water does stay tied to the land, I think it's a good thing. But it seems like an extremely involved issue in terms of water transfers and storage and who gets the water if it isn't used in its normal place, if there are other points of diversion."
Water district director Jeff Ollinger acknowledged few details about how the district will manage the water have been worked out. He said he would try to ensure the management details are written into the agreement.
"That's an important part that hasn't been talked about yet as we go from the concept to put together some of the principles of the operating and ownership agreement," he said.
Everett said Moltz has committed to the sale of the water but not the sale of the reservoir. The $8 million grant from the Division of Wildlife would cover the property and the water but not the reservoir, he said.
The district wants to bring the Colorado Department of Corrections into the deal because it has a prison in the area and owns significant water rights in Trout Creek and more than 100 acres near the project area.
The letter of support from the county is critical to starting the application process, Everett said.
"I think this project looks really good," commissioner Tim Glenn said. "It's got a lot of merit. It seems pretty exciting."
DOW Resource Manager Grady McNeill said he received the district's application before the July 31 deadline. It is one of about 100 applications seeking a share of the $20 million the DOW has available, he said.
Four or five projects will be chosen for funding with a final decision expected in October.
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