Water shares (Longmont, Loveland: mineral rights, for sale, new house)
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I see houses on the MLS in both the Boise and Ft. Collins areas..(Loveland, Longmont, etc),..some have 'water shares' or 'water shares available' listed in the info.....they are mostly houses on acreage, (I think)... I don't know what it is but it sounds like a big water bill...
Give me your input: is it something to seriously consider when checking out property, is it a huge water bill, is it water trucked in from a place other than the local storage tanks, extra wells, etc.? Without rechecking, I don't think these houses are necessarily on their own wells.....but not sure....
If you really like a house, but you see 'water shares', is it a red flag?
Usually that will mean that shares of irrigation water are available or included. Water in Colorado is very valuable. The water is sometimes worth more than the land.
If you have a small acreage and want to farm it, you have to have water shares in order to irrigate. If the land is developed or domestic water is otherwise supplied, the shares can be sold to someone else that needs them. In order to have a well, you have to own water rights, or belong to an augmentation program to return the water you use.
Usually that will mean that shares of irrigation water are available or included. Water in Colorado is very valuable. The water is sometimes worth more than the land.
If you have a small acreage and want to farm it, you have to have water shares in order to irrigate. If the land is developed or domestic water is otherwise supplied, the shares can be sold to someone else that needs them. In order to have a well, you have to own water rights, or belong to an augmentation program to return the water you use.
Hope that helps
Gosh, aside from the expense, it sounds like this can get quite complicated if you want to keep your acreage green.....
If it comes with a water share it is not expensive, if you want to buy one then it gets very expensive. It means the land is near an irrigation canal and you have a certain amount of water you can use from April 1st till Nov 1st, only to water your crops. Not sure if there are other fees involved if you do use your water share/shares. My neighbor has one I do not.
Full use wells, which is what I have, does not mean you are allowed to use it to water your land. It means that you can use it for your home and animals. I did not have to pay anything aside from the creation of the well, 7 years ago that was $12,000. No water shares or giving anything back. I do have to change the filters often and that gets annoying when my husband puts it on too tight. If it ever dries up then we will have issues.
Water taps last time I checked were $20,000. City water mainly for house use, water your lawn. They give you a water bill.
Water here is not that easy to come by and it can get costly. I think I heard that in the Southern part of CO they were not even allowed to catch rain in barrels or whatnot.
There are some fees for excercising your use of the waters shares. I can't remember what it is called but group I belong to has to pay about $2400 per year for 37 acre shares.
I am not sure how gmm_24 is legally using a well without an augmentation program. I drilled one about 10 years ago and had to belong to one. My company bought a property with two large wells that were properly drilled and decreed in water court, but the previous owners had dropped out of the Augmentation program. We were forced to cap them.
And as far as catching rainwater? that is a State law in Colorado - Not allowed!
If it comes with a water share it is not expensive, if you want to buy one then it gets very expensive. It means the land is near an irrigation canal and you have a certain amount of water you can use from April 1st till Nov 1st, only to water your crops. Not sure if there are other fees involved if you do use your water share/shares. My neighbor has one I do not.
Full use wells, which is what I have, does not mean you are allowed to use it to water your land. It means that you can use it for your home and animals. I did not have to pay anything aside from the creation of the well, 7 years ago that was $12,000. No water shares or giving anything back. I do have to change the filters often and that gets annoying when my husband puts it on too tight. If it ever dries up then we will have issues.
Water taps last time I checked were $20,000. City water mainly for house use, water your lawn. They give you a water bill.
Water here is not that easy to come by and it can get costly. I think I heard that in the Southern part of CO they were not even allowed to catch rain in barrels or whatnot.
What does 'water taps' mean? Is that when you run PVC pipes from a canal to your land (in order to water acreage?)
There are some fees for excercising your use of the waters shares. I can't remember what it is called but group I belong to has to pay about $2400 per year for 37 acre shares.
I am not sure how gmm_24 is legally using a well without an augmentation program. I drilled one about 10 years ago and had to belong to one. My company bought a property with two large wells that were properly drilled and decreed in water court, but the previous owners had dropped out of the Augmentation program. We were forced to cap them.
And as far as catching rainwater? that is a State law in Colorado - Not allowed!
How are shares purchased? Are they purchased in allotments, depending on the amount of acreage?
You were forced to cap the wells and start over in other areas?
Wow, interesting state law! My grandmother immigrated from Texas and ended up in California.....I remember a big barrel used to catch rain water....it was soft and used as the final rinse on hair....
Water "tap fees" are the price paid to hook up a water consumer (house, business, etc.) to a water service provider such as a municipal water and sewer district. This is a one-time up front fee for the privilege of having water service supplied and is not the cost of actually hooking up the water lines. In some places in Colorado, tap fees for a new residence can be 4 or 5 figures.
Water shares are purchased like shares in a business from an irrigation water supply company. If your property is served by a water company so that you could get functional delivery of water, then you might want to buy shares in a company for irrigation water. Depending upon how the water company is structured and the seniority of it's water rights, these shares trade for significant dollar amounts. A share is not a guarantee of water availability in any given year, it's only the right to a certain amount of water if the water company has it available. The water right shares are a separate item from the land, and are bought and sold on the open market when available. There's been a lot of Front Range Colorado municipalities that have bought water right shares from farmers to use to supply their domestic water service companies; the farm then is dryland without ag water.
Western water law, water availability, water use, water sourcing ... is totally different than the concerns (or lack of them) from riparian states with abundant water/seasonal rainfall. It's not something that you can take for granted, especially in "headwaters" states such as Colorado where much of the water that comes from seasonal snowmelt in the mountains is mandated to arrive via rivers to downstream water users. Colorado is essentially a high altitude desert climate for most of the state.
Many Colorado water users were forced to cap wells recently due to court decisions about the validity of their water rights. That's a large oversimplification of the situation, but the bottom line was that there was historically a couple of different ways to obtain water rights. The courts found that certain junior water right holders sourcing was to the detriment of others, and forced them to stop taking water. These type of water situations ... junior vs senior water rights, limited availability of a resource ... don't appear in riparian states and aren't a concern. But in the arid West, water is a resource that you cannot take for granted. If you need irrigation water for your crops, then you must have a water source sufficient to meet your water needs or you don't have crops ... unlike riparian areas where enough moisture falls naturally through the year to support multiple crops/multiple cuttings of forage crops through an annual growing season.
I live in Weld and they drilled the well into an aquafier and I have never had to do or have been asked to do any type of augmentation. No one around here has. I have never heard of it till I read your post.
My well is full use, house and animals. Not allowed to water the acreage but could probably get away with watering a small lawn or garden.
We had wanted a water tap but the previous owners never paid into the mill levy so we were out of luck.
If the darn thing ever dried up or had to be capped then we would be forced to use cisterns and I would not be happy.
Just because you own your land does not mean you own the mineral rights or the water rights. Someone else can and honestly I find it stupid. They can drill an oil well on my property and I have no say, nor do I get compensation for it, the person who owns my mineral rights does.
Water shares that I have seen for sale go upwards of $20,000. Water and oil here are money makers, it just won't end up in your pocket.
So if you are wanting to raise crops would you need to make sure your land is not dryland. I mean really check into it. A realtor had listed a property near me as full use and was saying they could irrigate the land and it was not true, it was a dry lot with no water shares.
Water "tap fees" are the price paid to hook up a water consumer (house, business, etc.) to a water service provider such as a municipal water and sewer district. This is a one-time up front fee for the privilege of having water service supplied and is not the cost of actually hooking up the water lines. In some places in Colorado, tap fees for a new residence can be 4 or 5 figures.
Water shares are purchased like shares in a business from an irrigation water supply company. If your property is served by a water company so that you could get functional delivery of water, then you might want to buy shares in a company for irrigation water. Depending upon how the water company is structured and the seniority of it's water rights, these shares trade for significant dollar amounts. A share is not a guarantee of water availability in any given year, it's only the right to a certain amount of water if the water company has it available. The water right shares are a separate item from the land, and are bought and sold on the open market when available. There's been a lot of Front Range Colorado municipalities that have bought water right shares from farmers to use to supply their domestic water service companies; the farm then is dryland without ag water.
Western water law, water availability, water use, water sourcing ... is totally different than the concerns (or lack of them) from riparian states with abundant water/seasonal rainfall. It's not something that you can take for granted, especially in "headwaters" states such as Colorado where much of the water that comes from seasonal snowmelt in the mountains is mandated to arrive via rivers to downstream water users. Colorado is essentially a high altitude desert climate for most of the state.
Many Colorado water users were forced to cap wells recently due to court decisions about the validity of their water rights. That's a large oversimplification of the situation, but the bottom line was that there was historically a couple of different ways to obtain water rights. The courts found that certain junior water right holders sourcing was to the detriment of others, and forced them to stop taking water. These type of water situations ... junior vs senior water rights, limited availability of a resource ... don't appear in riparian states and aren't a concern. But in the arid West, water is a resource that you cannot take for granted. If you need irrigation water for your crops, then you must have a water source sufficient to meet your water needs or you don't have crops ... unlike riparian areas where enough moisture falls naturally through the year to support multiple crops/multiple cuttings of forage crops through an annual growing season.
Thank you, sunsprit, and thank all of you for taking the time to write all this down.
My husband owns farm land in eastern Washington....used for several kinds of wheat and occasional barley, mostly....and there is such a high dependance on the rain, so basically the farmers have 'good years and dry years'...productivity totally dependant on the amount of water received.
We are really checking out the Ft. Collins area for our next and final move.....so far, the favorite is a house on 5 acres....if not, it'll definitely be one on some type of acreage, not necessarily for planting beyond the 'backyard area', but for 'breathing room'...... For one who is not used to these types of water issues, I have to admit, it's stressful. Things are dry in California, too; the farmers get it before our lawns do, and for good reason, but then again, I don't own 5 acres and try to keep things green, or at least 'greenish' in case we have fires brought on by the santa ana winds. I am right by the Pacific, but it is still dry here. I guess all areas of paradise have their issues, no matter where one settles.
After reading this, I definitely don't want to consider buying land and building a new house.
Do any of these water companies ever go out of business? What if farmers decide to get rid of 'dryland without ag water' and want their shares returned? What happens to the guy who just put in a small orchard or vineyard? (Meaning a new guy who just bought the farmer's shares that he gave up).
Do some companies sell shares more cheaply than others or is a rate set by the government?
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