Lower Ark District Board Adopts Water Principles
ROCKY FORD, Colo. – On September 16, 2026, during its regularly scheduled board meeting, the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District Board of Directors adopted a resolution establishing nine Lower Arkansas Valley Water Principles to support the District’s mission to conserve, protect, and enhance the water resources of the region.
As pressure on Lower Arkansas Valley agricultural water supplies continues to increase due to growth along Colorado’s Front Range, the Board recognized the importance of establishing a consistent set of principles that reflect the District’s responsibilities to the communities it serves.
“Water is fundamental to the future of the Lower Arkansas Valley, and these principles clearly state what our District believes is necessary to protect that future,” said Jack Goble, General Manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. “They will guide how we evaluate water issues and make decisions that protect the Valley’s water resources, agriculture, economy, and communities.”
The nine Lower Arkansas Valley Water Principles adopted by the Board are:
1. Uphold Colorado’s Water Rights System and Interstate Obligations
We support Colorado’s Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, respect private property rights, uphold applicable interstate compact obligations, and recognize the responsibilities that accompany decisions affecting water resources.
2. Keep Water Ownership Local
We prioritize retaining water and water ownership within the Lower Arkansas Valley and support conservation tools, funding, and voluntary, mutually beneficial water-sharing and leasing arrangements that preserve or improve the Valley’s agricultural land, economy, and communities.
3. Protect and Improve Water Quality
We support water management practices and projects that protect and improve water quality and oppose those that shift water-quality impacts, risks, or treatment burdens onto downstream Lower Arkansas Valley water users, agriculture, and communities.
4. Prioritize Local Interests
Decisions affecting the Lower Arkansas Valley’s water resources, irrigated agriculture, and related communities should give meaningful consideration to local interests and be informed by local knowledge, sound science, and direct input from the communities and water users who bear the consequences.
5. Strengthen Agricultural Resilience
We support investments, partnerships, policies, and practices that improve irrigation infrastructure, soil health, technology, and land stewardship that strengthen the long-term viability, productivity, and resilience of irrigated agriculture.
6. Preserve the Agricultural Land and Water Base
We recognize that irrigated agriculture depends on a critical mass of water, land, infrastructure, businesses, and people. We oppose permanent agricultural dry-up and support voluntary alternatives that allow landowners to realize the value of their water while preserving agricultural production and the communities that depend upon it.
7. Reject Speculative Water Investment
We oppose the acquisition and control of agricultural water primarily for speculative investment, brokering, or other use that is detrimental to the Lower Arkansas Valley.
8. Avoid and Mitigate Export Impacts
When agricultural water is proposed for transfer out of the Lower Arkansas Valley, the full economic, agricultural, environmental, and community impacts must be thoroughly evaluated. Those impacts should first be avoided or minimized, and when impacts cannot be avoided, meaningful, enforceable, and lasting mitigation should be required.
9. Prevent Shifting Water-Supply Impacts onto the Lower Arkansas Valley
We support water planning, development, and growth decisions that are based on realistic and sustainable water supplies and that do not shift the long-term economic, agricultural, environmental, or community costs of meeting water demands onto the Lower Arkansas Valley.
Join the Lower Ark District and Adopt the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Principles
The Board of Directors of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District encourages local governments, businesses, water users, and others who share a commitment to the Valley’s future to adopt the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Principles as a shared foundation for protecting the Valley’s water resources, irrigated agriculture, economy, and rural communities.
