Aurora City Council has approved leasing 200 acre feet of water to Nestle Waters North America for its water harvesting project in Chaffee County. The lease fulfills Nestle’s legal obligation to replace into the basin, water it takes from springs in Nathrop designated for transport to Denver for bottling and distribution under Nestle’s Arrowhead brand.
By a vote of 7 – 4, on March 23 Aurora agreed to a 10-year lease of up to 200-acre feet of fully consumable raw water at a base price of $800 per acre-foot to be increased in price by 5 percent per year with a single renewal term of an additional 10 years at Aurora’s discretion.
Minutes from the council hearing show interest in the deal as a way to keep water rates low to Aurora citizens outweighed concerns that the price was too low, or sent the wrong message about Aurora’s water resource availability to third parties, or that in so doing, Aurora would become part of the controversy between Nestle and Chaffee County citizens opposed to the project. Aurora Water Director Mark Pifner noted there was little public input during the negotiations with Nestle.
The final motion to approve the $5 million deal included a stipulation that revenues from the deal be “used and analyzed to alleviate rate increases and early bond redemption as a first purpose use.” Terms of the agreement state Nestle must have project approval within 12 months or Aurora could withdraw from the agreement.
Nestle Natural Resources Manager Bruce Lauerman said he would have loved to have worked out a similar lease agreement with the city of Salida and Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. Such a deal was under consideration last summer. Lauerman explained the Salida deal just wasn’t a good fi. It and was much more cumbersome than the Aurora lease and with both Salida and UAWCD involved more expensive. Lauerman added timing was also an important consideration and that it would have taken some creative thinking for Salida, UAWCD and private citizens to work out the necessary details to provide water augmentation to Nestle. Creative thinking of that nature takes time, Lauerman said, which would have delayed Nestle’s ability to start the approval process with Chaffee County.
“We’re still open to a deal with Salida,” Lauerman said, noting there is an out clause in the lease with Aurora.
Creative thinking of this kind does take time. Thank you Terry Scanga for UAWCD input at the public hearing yesterday. If you haven’t sold out to Nestle because of their “hurry up” tactics we still have a chance to stop the 1041 application and SLUP. You are our “keeper of the spring”. The Aurora Lease was approved but there were 4 “no” votes as well. This lease, which is available at http://www.chaffeecounty.org is basically a quick to fix to giving NWNA more time and more momentum for a continuance instead of a “no” from our county.
Yes, Aurora’s price was too low and of course there was little public input at thier public hearing because Chaffee County Citizens had no idea it was happening. The price was too low and the bone NWNA threw to Aurora to sign the lease agreement was only $10,000 Dollars. The twelve month period for NWNA to get their application approved for the lease to continue is another ploy to use a continuance of the application for their benefit.