U.S. Water News Online
DENVER-- The Colorado Court of Appeals has rejected all claims by a part-owner of water rights beneath the Baca Ranch, part of the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The recently-issued decision upheld a state district court's ruling against American Water Development Inc., which tried to block sale of the water rights to The Nature Conservancy.
The conservation group bought the 97,000-acre ranch in the San Luis Valley and plans to transfer it to the National Park Service. The ranch was the linchpin in upgrading the sand dunes in southern Colorado from a national monument to a national park.
Federal legislation signed in 2000 authorizing the national park required that the adjacent ranch be acquired and attached to the park. The Nature Conservancy bought the land for about $34.4 million from investors who acquired it from AWDI.
The development company sold the ranch in 1985 to the Cabeza de Vaca Land and Cattle Co., after losing a legal battle to pump and market the groundwater. The company retained a 10 percent interest in the water rights and tried to block the sale to The Nature Conservancy, saying it was owed more money.
The appeals court said the deal didn't allow American Water Development to dictate the price of the water rights.
Cabeza de Vaca Land and Cattle Co. also failed in efforts to sell the water to cities along the Front Range. There was widespread opposition from area residents, who feared pumping water out of the huge aquifer would harm the area's irrigation-fed agriculture and rivers and streams.
Baca Ranch was sold after Cabeza defaulted on a $16 million loan from California-based Vaca Partners, 50 percent of which was owned by Yale University. Yale agreed to donate the profits from sale of its interest in the ranch after students questioned the ethics of the university's association with the controversial water proposal.
Inclusion of the Baca Ranch in the national park will prevent transfer of the groundwater out of the valley. The water helps anchor the dunes, which at 750 feet are North America's tallest.
The sand dunes, which hug the bottom of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, were declared a national monument in 1932 by President Herbert Hoover. They officially became a national park in September.
The landscape changes from 8,200-foot-high grasslands, to the dunes, to 13,000-plus-foot mountains and alpine lakes -- all within four miles.
The area is home to seven species -- six insects and a mouse -- not found anywhere else in the world. The wildlife includes deer, elk, foxes, coyotes, mountain lions and bighorn sheep.
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