 Hi, I'm Sarah Maro with Cell State Peak Realty. We Coloradans live in a semi-desert that happens to have a lot of topography, so it's rife with ditches. And since water is such a hot commodity here, superintendents of ditch companies help us manage use of water. On today's property time, we'll be hearing from Bill Campbell, superintendent of the Boulder and White Rock Ditch and Reservoir Company. He's got over seven years of experience and he's been instrumental in helping me put water deals together. He has assisted some of my buyers in understanding the implications and the responsibilities of owning and using their water shares. And he keeps a close watch on water's growing value for us realtors. He and I actually met singing in Church Choir and he's a wealth of knowledge. I am just delighted that he's agreed to come and share some of that knowledge with us today. Hi, Bill. Well, thank you, Sarah. I appreciate you asking me. Thank you for being here. Are you kidding? I appreciate you having us in your repertoire. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your role in the water world here in Longmont? Well, I am the superintendent for the Boulder and White Rock Ditch. I prefer to be known as a ditch rider from the olden days when the people that were in charge would ride the ditch on horseback and make sure that the water was flowing, the proper amount was there, and then also to make adjustments for all of the shareholders to receive the amount of water that they've ordered. Oh, cool. I never knew that about riding like an actual horseback rider. Now it's a car. I love it. So why do ditch companies exist and why are there so many of them here in Longmont? Well, if you think about it, in terms of how would you get water to any location, just a meandering of the main creek and then it only goes downhill. So the water has to come off of the creek at one point and then because it's always going downhill, if your place is far away, it still needs to go downhill in order to get there. And so therefore maybe one ditch that goes along the topography of the land will get to your place or maybe if you go from a different ditch, it would be a little bit easier or more convenient to get to that location. So topography is the main course of why there are so many number of irrigation companies. Gotcha. So you're kind of working with Mother Nature to fulfill these orders from shareholders most of the time? Very much. All the time. In fact, there's only a certain amount of water at any given time throughout the year. Boulder Creek as an example right now is running about 10 CFS at the location that I take water, which is there in Boulder between Arapaho and Canyon underneath the Broadway Bridge. And that 10 CFS then has to travel 27 miles to Panama and then it has to go another six miles or no, another 20 miles, I'm sorry, to get to somebody that would be taking water at the very end of the Boulder White Rock system. Gotcha. Also shareholders who are also entitled to that. So you've got to figure out a way to get it there. Right. What's CFS again? Well right now 10 CFS cubic feet per second is running, but during the high area Boulder Creek will run 300 CFS. Gotcha. And so you see there's limitations and everything goes on a seniority basis. I'm junior to some ditches. I'm senior to other ditches. So You say I'm being your property. I'm being, no, the Boulder White Rock representative. The property that I live on is also a shareholder. It's actually owned by the county, but the number of shares that are used for that property have to, whoever's using that water needs to call ahead and get the water so that I can make sure that they have it the next day. Sure. But you're saying certain ditch companies are junior to others. Correct. That was your point there. Okay. In that case, Boulder White Rock was appropriated in 1873. So lower Boulder, which is a ditch down, well it gets its water off around 95th on the Boulder Creek. They in fact are number one in priority for irrigation, but then they have a junior right to my storage right. So the storage right I have is senior to their storage right, but my irrigation right is junior to their senior irrigation right. Crazy. Kind of complicated. Kind of complicated. So let's break it down and give an example. Let's say I just bought a property. Okay. And it comes with one share of Boulder White Rock ditch rights. Okay. I've got one share. Okay. What does that really mean for me? How do I get that water and how does the getting that change throughout the year? Oh, interesting. The way it works is the board of directors determines the amount of water that one share would receive, and that may vary each year depending upon the availability of water. Is it measured in inches, cubic feet? What is it? And yeah, inches and cubic feet are the common ways. Okay. One cubic foot is equal to 40 inches of water. 40 inches of water is or one cubic foot of that would in fact fill two acre feet. So two acres of land or one acre of land two feet high or two acres of land one foot high, obviously. Is that technically, is that close to one share usually or does it just totally depend? One share is not going to do you much. If you, if you have one, maybe you're watering your lawn, then one share would probably work. But if you were farming on let's say 160 acres, you'd probably want 100 shares of Boulder White Rock. Now, the difference with your ditches is each one is appropriated by the number of shareholders they have and the right that they originally got from when they filed in courts. So my 1873 right allows for a lot of water. A lot of water runs then in the beginning. We also have two storage areas that then can also provide water when in fact my right to receive water off of Boulder Creek is nullified by the people that either upstream or downstream are senior in rights to my priority. Okay, so again the question was, no, no, no, I just want to clarify that I got those answers. So the question was, you know, what does that mean when I get one share? We got that. How do I access that sounds like I need to place an order. And then how does that change that the year you mentioned rivers versus storage. I know that impacts once the river water kind of runs up and everybody's already accessed it then you dip into the storage. Correct, correct. And so for in the case of Boulder White Rock, one share of water would allow you 50 inches of water but only 13 maybe 12 inches of storage water. Later in the season. We're talking like late summer now. So we usually run out of water and well July 4th is a good time. July 4th when you look up at the Mount Meeker and you see the vein of snow that is now melted down. It's not quite as wide up there. We're out of water and that probably goes across the range. A lot of people have used that as a way of knowing if their water is going to be running out. So now there are a lot of ditches who they don't have storage and so when water's out and their seniority is out, they're out of water. Which means they're calling you to place orders for water and you're saying no. I wouldn't but they would. I mean someone on the ditch would probably say no. And also you have to realize if my storage is downstream from where your property is, I can't move that water upstream. You haven't figured out how to move water uphill? Bill, get with it. So there again topography plays the main role. The topography as far as up in the mountains we have so much snowfall. When we see high snowfalls there's a good chance that we'll have water either for a longer period of time or more water. However if the sun comes out and it doesn't rain or it doesn't freeze at night or things like that, we can have a whole lot of water up in our storage area which is called the mountains and not have any water because it's all drained down and we can't bring it back. Got it, got it. So there are many sources of water it sounds like mostly being the mountains but I've noticed there's tons of ditch companies here in Longmont. Where are we really getting, is it Boulder Creek? Is it St. Vrain? Yes. Where are we, where, break it down. I know there are districts. Natural rivers or we call them creeks in most cases. So we have the St. Vrain, we have the left hand here in Longmont. Further south we have Boulder Creek. Further north they have the Big Thompson which is a very very large source and then of course you go out east and they've got Platt, St. Vrain, you know all of those they they're all they're all the natural flow and then from that a ditch company would build a head gate I see that then would allow water to go down their ditch which they have made. I see. And then they would in fact take at your location they would a ditch rider would open the head gate and allow you to get a certain amount of water. Got it. It's not just well I want water today and the way we go you know. So your job really is in fulfilling these orders your opening head gates you're literally going to people's properties and allowing them the ditch access and your I imagine I mean I'm on I'm a director on you know the oligarchy and the Panic Laterals so it's it's cleaning and it's making sure that there's clear you know trashes and in the ditch and what else do you do day to day? Well and the head gates leak you know they get old the culverts that are associated with those get old they they need to be maintained mostly it's trees that seem to be our biggest nemesis so to speak. Gotcha. So you're you're you're a farm you work with the farmers and you clear the trees. But then there's also erosion because if you're sending water and it's making a curve and the curve as a weakened soil area then then that's going to erode and uh there's strict laws that the size of the ditch cannot change and once you start eroding then you're changing the size of the ditch and and so you have to then fill that or build a wall or put riprap in or whatever it is. So you're a problem solver and you have to work with mother nature every day. A lot of things. Well one last if you can just this has been so informative and I so appreciate it. What is what are just a couple other small tips that you would tell a buyer or even a seller for that matter who's purchasing a property on a farm or who's inheriting a property that's got ditch rights or these these water shares attached to them. By the way I just want to throw in can you confirm that it's true that just because I'm buying a property with shares I can always buy shares separate from a property and property separate from shares right those aren't always attached. Only when they're available okay uh well and also you can buy extra water in some ditches from northern most people are aware of northern water northern water uh they sell what is called uh Colorado Big Thompson or CBT water. Sure uh the Boulder White Rock has an inlet from the uh Big T. Big T but so if you bought Big T water and you are downstream from that location then you can certainly use that but if you're upstream from where it would dump in again there again you're out of water so um SRW okay um but something you mentioned something however what was that all about and I kind of got off I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure that water share purchases were always attached to property share purchases. Oh well and we're seeing more and more where the property is sold and the water is then taken and sold for a different price. A good example is we talked about CBT my father-in-law when CBT first came out was almost given water from the from northern they they wanted him to just have the shares and then just pay for the for the water so it was virtually a small small amount well now one share of water is equal to it allows you one acre foot of water appropriated by northern to a certain percentage uh such as like 70% was the last appropriation so 70% of one acre foot of water and like I said my father-in-law at one time could get it for practically nothing and the last time I checked it was selling for about $60,000 the one share one share that's even higher than the last time I checked as well so appreciation and inflation is a real thing so and then also you get like a lot of the cities in the area they'll look at a property and they'll say oh yeah we'll buy that and we'll get all the rights and then what happens is they'll take that water share away and you're left with dry land there's a lot of it up in the Greeley area a little east of Greeley that cheap land because you can't grow anything on it so it doesn't have to however you cannot you cannot buy a share of water in our ditch and most ditches and use that ditch's water if it's not historically been been used for that so you can't take it upstream you know or uphill right you can't pump it uphill right because it has to flow in what historically has been however because it's in the region of the northern water they in fact could sell you CBT to kind of offset that detachment uh-huh so we would then have just a carrying fee for that so it's complicated it's complicated but they're a great source like literally and figuratively speaking of information and well and with properties it's not only do I have water or do I not have water if you live along a ditch I may have to go through your property in order to maintain the water it's called a prescriptive easement and nobody you know so you can't put up a fence the and lock it and say oh bill you can't I I have to you got a right I have a prescriptive easement which is a right to maintain the ditch great so if I am so to answer that first question before our tangent yeah if I'm a buyer and I'm looking at a property with water shares I not only need to be mindful of prescriptive easements as well as the amount of the water not only that that share is worth now which is growing but also what that entitles me to and and that it can detach when the water's available yeah you know you don't want to be growing organics on a farm that doesn't get water after august sure you know right so that yeah so when it's out it's out yeah any irrigation season really is what like april march end of march first of april to end of september first of october if they have if they have storage if it snowed a lot basically or they have senior rights uh-huh um yeah because there are some ditches that went off in the first part of september because they were they were dry junior rights not enough water gotcha and then the last thing um I know I know to do or at least tell my clients is are you accessible can my buyers just call the writer should they be having conversations with you should they get to know their ditch company probably better if you're going to buy a property you better better know the uh ditch rider um our and that is all public information um um we have to deal with the government entity called a water commissioner and they are in different districts I'm in district six you're in district five you have a different water commissioner than I do okay um but the water commissioner um would know who the ditch riders are uh and give you access to them gotcha so he's giving you access and you're giving us access basically yeah right you got the you got the boss man too yeah yeah yeah bill you've been a joy to speak with thank you so much for your time oh thank you you're welcome that's the proper good luck thanks the property the property