Residents deliver hundreds of letters protesting access
THE BACKGROUND: The Colorado Division of Water Resources notified 85 Ellicott-area residents last month that the Cherokee Metropolitan District was demanding access to Denver Basin aquifer water under their property, saying it has held the rights on it since 1954.
Landowners who were never notified of the contracts that were signed regarding those rights cried foul and said the draining of a water source underneath their wells would cause their well levels to drop. Cherokee General Manager Kip Petersen said the growing district has paid the original contract holders $1.4 million over the years.
WHAT’S NEW: State Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, and three of the affected residents — Marilan Luttrell, Carol Nadeau and Mary Simmons — delivered 408 letters of protest to the Ground Water Commission on Friday, adding them to letters that had been sent in from owners of nine properties earlier.
Division officials accepted the letters even though they did not include a required $10 fee for each, and the women talked with them for about an hour about their concerns. “I think they understand that people are angry. I think they’re going to do something with people’s concerns,” Nadeau said afterward.
WHAT’S NEXT: After the same trio delivers more letters Monday, division officials will turn them all over to a hearing officer, who will schedule a hearing with the complainants. Any appeal of the officer’s decision would go to the Ground Water Commission, which has ruled in Cherokee’s favor once.
Looper, meanwhile, is considering running a bill next year that would require water-rights contracts to be disclosed to the buyer whenever property is sold.
