A $1.1 billion reservoir and pipeline project designed to provide water to Parker, Castle Rock and a key farm region in northeastern Colorado has cleared a major hurdle in water court.
The Platte Valley Water Partnership, formally launched in 2021, includes the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District in Sterling, as well as the two cities.
Water projects in Colorado must undergo review by special water courts, a process that allows other water right holders who might be affected to examine the deal. The court’s approval earlier this month opens the door for permitting and construction work to begin, said Ron Redd, general manager of the Parker Water and Sanitation District.
The partnership plans to build a 125-mile pipeline, a new plains reservoir and diversion structures that will serve farms and small towns along the Lower South Platte River to the southern Denver metro area. The cost of the project will be shared between water users, with Parker picking up 52% of the tab, the Lower South Platte district picking up 27% and Castle Rock paying 20%, Redd said.
Advocates of the pipeline and reservoir say it represents a new way to divide dwindling water supplies between cities and rural ag-dependent economies without drying up farmland, a practice known as “buy and dry.”
“It’s not buy and dry. It’s a different method,” said Gene Manuello, a long-time rancher and feed lot operator who also sits on the board of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District. “The need for water up here isn’t nearly as big as the need to protect against buy and dry.”
The deal includes strict rules that prohibit any water that has been obtained by taking it off farm fields from being stored or delivered through the project.
Colorado has lost more than 30% of its irrigated ag lands in the past 30 years, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The loss has occurred largely because of drought and ongoing efforts by fast-growing Front Range cities to buy farms on the Eastern Plains, and shift water that once irrigated crops to city use.
The Lower Arkansas River Valley has been particularly hard-hit, with cities such as Aurora and Colorado Springs buying thousands of acres of land, and transferring the water north to their communities via the Arkansas River and pipeline projects built decades ago. Both cities have worked closely with some growers to mitigate the impact of the loss of irrigated lands, but concerns remain high, especially as drought continues to shrink available water supplies.
How the deal intends to help the farm economy
The Platte Valley Partnership is intended to help the farm economy by making more water, not less, available to growers, Redd said.
“It feels like a new way to do business,” he said. “We didn’t buy anything and dry it up, and we won’t allow anyone to dry up land and put the water in our pipeline.”
With the water court’s approval, the Platte Valley Partnership now has a new 2019 water right. This means it won’t be able to divert in most years, but it will be able to divert during big rain storms and floods, such as those that occurred in 2013 and 2023, Redd said. The new right is estimated to produce nearly 22,000 acre-feet of water for farm communities and the same amount for urban areas. One acre-foot roughly equals nearly 326,000 gallons, enough to serve at least two to three households in a year.
With the water right approved, Redd said permitting work and construction can begin on the first phase, a diversion structure and pipeline that will deliver water to the farmers in the next five to seven years.
“We thought it would be nice to get the farming community up and running,” Redd said.
Delivering water to the cities will take longer, with completion slated for 2040, depending on permitting and construction timelines.
One of the challenges of the partnership is how to keep water affordable for farmers, who typically pay much less for water than cities.
Joe Frank is manager of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District. He said work is beginning now on how to structure costs.
“We don’t know what it looks like yet,” Frank said. “But we’re looking at sharing costs based on the economic benefits of the project. Our users might get 50% of the water, but they won’t pay 50% of the costs. We’re looking at grant funding to help with our side of this. And we might go to a vote of the people to secure bonding authority.
“It has to be affordable,” Frank said.
Phase one of the project comes as Colorado and Nebraska pursue a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether Colorado is already overusing its share of the South Platte River, something that Colorado denies.
Nebraska has said it wants to build the Perkins Canal in northeastern Colorado to help it capture water it says it is owed under the 1923 South Platte River Compact.
But Platte Valley Partners say their project is being built within the legal confines of that compact and state water law.
“This is not Nebraska’s water,” Redd said.
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