Black Hawk and Central City Cooperate on Water Development

Historic Black Hawk and Central City, Colo., once shared a common water supply and delivery system. The system was disconnected at some point, but the two gaming towns recently authorized their engineers to study the possibility of reintegrating their facilities.

"The plumbing is pretty straight forward," said Gregg Ten Eyck, president of Leonard Rice Engineering and Black Hawk's civil engineer, who added that "the legal issues are going to be a bit harder to overcome."

Black Hawk and Central City both own junior and senior water rights and they have had claims tied up in water court for almost a decade.

"We believe that many of the issues in water court right now can be ironed out if Central City and Black Hawk can come to some kind of an agreement," said Lynnette Hailey, Central City Manager.

According to Glenn Porzak, water attorney for the City of Golden, intergovernmental water agreements are a common way for municipalities around the state to deal with the increasing demands for water and increased efficiencies in processing and distribution, while avoiding the costs of protracted litigation.

"Districts in the Vail Valley have entered into a series of intergovernmental water agreements that interconnect the various water facilities from the town of Vail all the way down to the Edwards/Cordillera region. They can move water up-valley or down-valley to meet the different needs at different times of the year," said Porzak.

The Vail Valley agreement resulted in the distribution of ten thousand acre-feet of water each to Colorado Springs and Aurora, while developing an equal amount for in-basin use and ending nearly thirty years of unfruitful haggling in water court.

While the Vail Valley agreement is of much larger scope than anything contemplated by Black Hawk and Central City, it offers a template for negotiations and potentially significant outcomes for both towns.

But Acting City Manager for Black Hawk, Corey Hoffmann is cautious. "We look forward to working with Central City, and we hope that if we come to an agreement it will be beneficial to the whole community."

Source: Black Hawk; Central City