GREELEY — Gov. John Hickenlooper has delivered the news Weld County farmers didn’t want to hear — the news they couldn’t afford to hear, they say.
During a meeting with Weld County commissioners Tuesday morning, Hickenlooper said he doesn’t have the authority to allow curtailed groundwater wells in Weld County to pump out of priority. Hickenlooper said that, according to the state’s attorney general, he lacks the power to override the prior-appropriations system that’s been in place in Colorado for more than 100 years.
“I lobbied as hard as I could,” Hickenlooper said to Weld County commissioners. “But this is a complex issue.”
Local farmers and officials had been urging Hickenlooper in recent weeks to issue an order allowing the wells to pump for 30 days this summer because irrigation ditches are running dry and millions of dollars in planted crops are expected to burn up soon. Those farmers say high groundwater levels also can cause flooded basements and crop losses.
Read the rest of this report and see the attorney general’s opinion at
