DENVER—A water conservation district near Pueblo filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block a water deal that would allow Aurora to store and purchase water from the Arkansas River basin for the next 40 years.
The suit is the latest in a Western water struggle that pits growing cities like the 300,000 people in Aurora against agricultural areas like those in southeastern Colorado around the Arkansas River.
The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation claiming the agencies do not have the authority to grant the deal.
Bureau of Reclamation officials did not immediately return calls for comment.
Under the deal, Aurora would be able to store 10,000 acre-feet of water in Pueblo Reservoir and other storage bodies as part of a water exchange. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, approximately the amount of water up to three households use in a year.
The conservancy district is concerned the deal would mean less water for an already choked river basin.
“We feel like we have already been put in peril,” said John Singletary, chair of the district’s board of directors.
Singletary said existing water rights have the Arkansas basin at “200 percent over-appropriation,” meaning the water is already spoken for twice.
“This would only put more pressure on us,” he said.
Singletary said the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, was created to protect water in the district—not move water out.
Pueblo Dam—which creates Pueblo Reservoir where Aurora wants to store its water—was constructed as part of the project approved by Congress in 1962 to provide supplemental water to farms and cities. The project transfers water from the Fryingpan River through the Boustead Tunnel at Turquoise Lake.
An official with Aurora Water said the city does not get water out of the agreement, only storage and exchange rights. The city has operated one-year contracts with similar provisions since 1986. It pumps water from the valley into the South Platte River.
Aurora was not named as a defendant in the suit.
