Fracking bidders top farmers at water auction

Front Range farmers bidding for water to grow crops through the coming hot summer and possible drought face new competition from oil and gas drillers. At Colorado's premier auction for unallocated water this spring, companies that provide water for hydraulic fracturing at well sites were top bidders on supplies once claimed exclusively by farmers. The prospect of tussling with energy industry giants over water leaves some farmers and environmentalists uneasy. "What impact to our environment and our agricultural heritage are Coloradans willing to stomach for drilling and fracking?" said Gary Wockner, director of the Save the Poudre Coalition, devoted to protecting the Cache la Poudre River. "Farm water grows crops, but it also often supports wildlife, wetlands and stream flows back to our rivers. Most drilling and fracking water is lost from the hydrological cycle forever," Wockner said. "Any transfer of water from rivers and farms to drilling and fracking will negatively impact Colorado's environment and wildlife." The Northern Water Conservancy District runs the auction, offering excess water diverted from the Colorado River Basin—25,000 acre-feet so far this year—and conveyed through a 13-mile tunnel under the Continental Divide. Farmers who go to the auctions seeking to produce food—or maybe plant more acres—are on equal footing with companies seeking water for fracking, Northern Water spokesman Brian Werner said. "If you have a beneficial use for the water, then you can bid for that water," Werner said. "We see the beneficial use of the water as a positive for the economy of the whole region. Fracking is one of those uses. Our uses of water have evolved over 150 years." Riding his tractor last week, Colorado hay producer Lar Voss, who bid for water at the recent auction, accepted this approach. Voss bid for 100 acre-feet "to be sure I've got enough for the crops," he said. Selling water to those who can pay the most "is what ought to happen."...more

And of course, the Farmer's Union have never seen a market they liked:

"How do we continue to sustain agriculture when there's just more and more demand on our water resources in this state?" said Bill Midcap, director of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which represents 22,000 producers in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.