For decades, water conservancy districts across the
West have been shielded from the ballot box. Almost always, judges
or governors appoint the board members, who have the power to levy
taxes.
This summer, for only the second time in
62 years, voters in Colorado had the chance to elect board members
to a water district. Reformers went one for two. Sierra Club
volunteer and Crested Butte resident Steve Glazer ran unopposed and
won a seat on the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District.
Twice previously, the district court judge had refused to appoint
Glazer to the seat. But environmentalist and two-term incumbent
Ramon Reed lost to rancher Greg Peterson, 276-73. Peterson was the
rancher the district court judge would probably have appointed if
Reed hadn’t forced an election by collecting signatures of more
than 10 percent of the electors in his
district.
Water conservancy districts are special
districts formed to tax property owners and repay the federal
government for dams and irrigation systems. In general, the boards
are appointed rather than elected, Glazer says, “because water
interests today don’t want to be subject to the public’s
environmental values.”
Nevertheless, state laws
setting up water districts must walk a line between control and
democracy. Attorney Tim De Young of Albuquerque, a specialist in
conservancy districts, says that the broader the powers of a
special district, the more the courts require elections.
Irrigation districts, which have narrow powers
and tax only irrigated land, can get away with appointed boards.
But conservancy districts, which can irrigate and drain land and
perform other functions, need to provide for at least the
possibility of elections. In Gunnison County, it was the petition
process that allowed the reformers to bypass the judge and hold an
election.
* Ed
Marston
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A rare vote on water.
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