U.S. Water News Online
GREELEY, Colo. -- Officials with Colorado's two biggest farm organizations say they will focus on water issues when the Legislature convenes.
Rep. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, is expected to offer a bill that would allow farmers to idle certain land and lease the water they would use to irrigate that land to municipalities or other water users.
John Stencel, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and Troy Bredenkamp, executive vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, said they will watch the "fallowing" bill with interest.
"What she is doing is trying to come up with something that everybody can live with," Stencel told the Greeley Tribune. "Our concern is that, while a farmer may lease that water for three to 10 years, or what ever time period, he, or she, still retains ownership of that water."
Another issue expected to play an important role for agricultural interests is legislation intended to address damage caused by oil and gas exploration, which is booming in Colorado and much of the West.
"That remains a concern for other agriculture groups as well," Bredenkamp said. "What is needed is a surface-use agreement between the developer and the land owner that would include everything that everybody wants."
On renewable energy, both men said their organizations were pleased with a federal mandate that 5 percent of the nation's fuel be ethanol by 2007 and 10 percent by 2012. Stencel said that will probably lead to rural development and there may be other renewable energy bills that come out of the 2006 session.
Permits for hunters, including landowner vouchers, is an issue the Farm Bureau is also interested in, Bredenkamp said.
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