The Water Information Program

As Northern Colorado grows, farmers continue to sell off their most valuable cash crop: water rights. "In agriculture, the water that you have is part of your value," said Don Magnuson, co-owner of Ag Country Nutrition, a dairy feed farm near Ault and superintendent of New Cache La Poudre Irrigation Co. "The dirt isn't worth as much as the water, and that's always been true." Water rights, once largely owned by the farmers and ranchers who settled the area, have shifted to ditch companies who deliver it to shareholders including cities and developers, as well as farmers and ranchers. When the Colorado-Big Thompson Project was completed in 1957, 85 percent of the water shares were owned by farmers and ranchers, said Brian Werner, a spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. That figure has declined to 36 percent. The project brings water from the state's Western Slope to the Front Range and plains for agriculture, municipalities and industry. Today, a C-BT water unit, typically about seven-tenths of an acre-foot, goes for about $9,500 to $10,000, Werner said.

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