The communities of southeast Colorado — and the farmers who produce Pueblo chiles, Rocky Ford cantaloupes, hay, beef and other local foods — throughout the Lower Arkansas Valley united in opposition to the proposed Karman Line development, which went to Colorado Springs voters on June 17 in a special election. Voters soundly defeated the thirsty annexation on a nearly 82% vote against.

There are communities that illustrate what happens to counties drained of their water in the name of growth. Prior to the late 1980s, Crowley County was a prolific agriculture producing area, with well more than 50,000 acres of irrigated sugar beets and produce. After water sales to Colorado Springs dried those acres, only about 1,994 irrigated acres are in production according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. That deal, is known as a buy and dry whereas the water deals of today are not a total dry up. In many cases, the farmers install center pivot irrigation sprinklers and the un-irrigated corners outside the reach of the end guns are dried. It is, he said, more like one-thirds of the field rather than all.

A drive from Punkin Center on State Highway 71 takes drivers past the vast ranches south to where the Colorado Canal once flowed near Ordway. The area, according to those who recall, was once some of the best farm ground in the state. Between Olney Springs and Crowley, there were once 4,000 acres of orchards. With a railroad depot, the Missouri Pacific Railway, the town allowed people and goods to flow through town and it was established as a shipping hub for the onions, plums, apples, corn, cherries, and Rocky Ford cantaloupe that were made possible through good dirt and irrigation water. The town boasted a grain mill and elevator, a church, a saloon, a lumberyard, the local newspaper, the Ordway New Era, and was home to the impressive Boston Farm, complete with a 25-room farmhouse built with east coast capital.

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It is now the most populous town in Crowley County with just more than 1,000 residents. There are a handful of cafes, a pizza joint and a dollar store. There are fewer than 1,000 acres of sorghum, 2,300 acres of hay and the cattle production the county is now known for. The county’s major employers are a 55,000-feedyard and the two correctional facilities in the county.

Nearby Sugar City was the site of a sugar beet processing facility owned by National Beet Sugar Company, making it the fastest growing town in Otero County and home to hotels, stores, a casino, a racetrack and the newspaper, the Saccharine Gazette.

There were certainly hard blows dealt to the area during the 1930s. During World War II, when young men were not home with beet hoes in their hands for harvest, but instead in the Pacific theater holding rifles, German POWs and Japanese-American families seeking shelter with families in the area to avoid internment brought in harvests.

In 1966, the sugar plant closed its doors. At that time, agriculture was undergoing major transitions to larger equipment and chemicals that allowed higher yields. As was the case across the state, consolidation forced the hands of many a family farm, with those operators able to afford the inputs buying out their neighbors.

Crowley County farmers sold their water rights to the Crowley County Land and Development Company, a speculator, who sold the water to Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Aurora. The area returned to its ranching roots, grazing cattle on the shortgrass pastures.

According to the City of Colorado Springs, the defeated Karman Line annexation includes six separate formal annexations east of the city totaling 1,912 acres and the 2023 application to annex the property was reviewed per the standard process. The project was approved, then challenged, and then the City Council referred the ballot question to voters after signatures were collected from city residents to do so. The vote whether to pressure more agriculture water sales in the valley was left in the hands of metro voters. Luckily, the voters rejected the proposal.

According to the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, which serves Pueblo, Crowley, Bent, Otero and Prowers Counties, the annexation has drawn criticism for its use of a controversial “flagpole annexation” method — where distant parcels are connected to the city through a long, thin strip of land, enabling non-contiguous development. The land is a proposed 1,900-acre development to include 6,500 homes and commercial space, all 3.5 miles east of the city. The development is projected to require an additional 1,700-acre feet of water per year, in addition to the current projected shortfall of 34,000-acre feet for planned future growth within existing city limits. These types of annexations present challenges for city services and logistics, but for farmers in the Arkansas Valley, the acres potentially left dry are much more significant.

In February, the LAVWCD board of directors passed a resolution expressing concern much of the water to meet Colorado Springs’ growing demands would likely come from farms in the Lower Arkansas Valley. According to the district, the City of Colorado Springs already has a projected 34,000 acre-feet annual water supply gap and has proposed the project which would annex land outside the City of Colorado Springs. The annexation represented about 2,000-acres of agriculture-producing land in the Arkansas Valley. No matter where the water is purchased, it is pulled out of the Pueblo Reservoir leaving less water and lower quality water at the end of the line for southeast Colorado communities.

The cities, towns, counties and agriculture groups in the Lower Arkansas Valley stood shoulder to shoulder and opposed this annexation and were successful. There will, no doubt, be more. All agriculture can hope is that voters will make decisions with their stomachs because no farms still means no food.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.