SOUTHERN COLORADO (KOAA) — As Colorado Springs grows, a question for many is whether the city has enough water to support the community.
It’s a topic that’s come up as voters are deciding whether a proposed development near Schriever Space Force Base, known as Karman Line, should be annexed into the existing city limits.
Proponents of the development argue Colorado Springs has enough water. Further south from the city in rural communities along the Lower Arkansas River Valley, there’s concern about how Colorado Springs’ growth will impact their own economic vitality and quality of life.
“For everything gained, something is lost,” Mike Bartolo, a retired agriculture researcher and farmer in Rocky Ford, a community in Otero County about an hour and a half southeast of Colorado Springs said, “what keeps me up in the night is that, like, we're not valued in this community and that I'm going to wake up one day and I'm going to say, what did we do for the kids and our grandkids?”.
Bartolo has concerns not only with water supply, but water quality in his community. The city of Aurora purchased thousands of acres of land in Otero County decades ago, the land comes with water rights that he said impacts the county’s economic viability.
The land Aurora owns is undergoing revegetation, but Bartolo said that land can’t necessarily be used for farming or development, leaving his community concerned about how it can grow economically.
Recently, several local governments, including Otero County have passed resolutions opposing new annexations in Colorado Springs. Tim Knabenshue, one of three commissioners in the county said there's concern over property rights and the economic future of the county.
"I don't want to infringe on somebody's rights to negotiate with Colorado Springs," Knabenshue said, "I want private property to have that ability to still negotiate and ability, but I also want to make sure that the county is is taken care of when it comes to the economics of it."
In 2023, Colorado Springs City Council passed an ordinance requiring the city’s water supply to be at 128 percent of its annual use in order to approve new annexations into the city.
A presentation by Springs Utilities shows the Karman Line annexation would meet that requirement. The same presentation also shows the city will need to secure additional water in the future, up to 34,000 acre feet in the coming decades, to keep up with the water supply of the city’s growth.
An acre-foot is the size of a football field filled one foot deep of water. Springs Utilities says one acre-foot can support 3-4 families a year.
Springs Utilities said it plans to close the gap through conservation efforts, reuse mechanisms, and agricultural water sharing among other efforts.
People like Bartolo are worried that this means communities like Otero County will be susceptible to “buy and dry” agreements, where the city would purchase land for the water rights and leave land vacant.
“So history tells us that they're continually going to add to that water portfolio. And they do that a little bit by conservation, a little bit by some storage arrangements, but by and large, by the buying and drying of agricultural water rights,” Bartolo said.
Springs Utilities said it does not participate in large-scale “buy and dry” agreements. It points to its water sharing program, which offers efficient water sprinklers to farmers in exchange for leasing water rights.
Proponents of the Karman Line annexation point to a data point Springs Utilities used in its presentation earlier this year as part of the reason the city is equipped with the necessary amount of water. The proposed development that voters are deciding on is expected to create about 6,500 homes near Schriever Space Force Base.
Karman Line’s land is adjacent to city-owned land, that is expected to become the Gary Bostrom Reservoir. Springs Utilities said the reservoir will be built when the demand is needed, but expects it to happen before 2050.
“Colorado Springs residents are amazing conservationists. If you look over the last 30 years, we're using the same amount of water that we did 30 years ago,” Eli Bremer, one of the founding partners on Karman Line said.
Springs Utilities “Reliably Met Demand”, or the amount of water it can reasonably support each year, is 95,000 acre feet. This number is used to account for the risk of dry years. In a dry year, Springs Utilities said it may only be able to divert 50,000 acre feet, but in an average year, it could yield up to 125,000 acre feet.
“So the truth is that we're putting native grasses into our lawns. We're doing conservation efforts that are leading to us being way more efficient,” Bremer said.
COLORADO SPRINGS WATER SUPPLY
- The "Reliably Met Demand" or the amount of water it can support in a given year is 95,000 acre feet
- Currently, customers use about 70,000 acre feet a year
- Colorado Springs Utilities has water rights of up to 250,000 acre feet it can divert for people to use, but that much water has never been produced in a year
In a presentation earlier this year, Utilities shows a buffer of about 25,000 acre feet between the “Reliably Met Demand” and how much is actually used, which is about 70,000 acre feet.
Bartolo feels that a buffer is necessary and it should be considered as Colorado Springs looks to build additional housing.
“So even though you know, we may think, oh, we've got this extra water, like I said, Mother Nature doesn't care. She could turn off the faucet next week and we could be out of water. So we need to respect that,” Bartolo said.
Proponents of Karman Line say the issue is not owning water, pointing to data from Colorado Springs Utilities that shows it owns more than 450,000 acre feet. According to Springs Utilities, that number refers to storage rights, not water that can be used. Of the 450,000, only about 260,000 acre feet of storage have been developed.
The rights of water the city can divert for use is 250,000 acre-feet. However, Utilities said it has never reached that number because Mother Nature has not produced that much water.
Colorado Springs Utilities has also put out its own points of clarification ahead of the special election on June 17, where voters will decide if Karman Line should be annexed in to Colorado Springs.
Ballots need to be turned in no later than 7 p.m. on June 17. For more election information, visit the following link: Colorado Springs Election Information.
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