How and why do cities get water from farms?
Colorado law allows water rights to be bought, sold and transferred. It is very common for cities to purchase water rights from farmers. For example in the Colorado-Big Thompson project along the northern Front Range, agricultural ownership of water shares dropped from 85 to 47 percent from 1957 to 1998 as growing Front Range cities bought agricultural water. For cities, this is often the cheapest and easiest way to acquire new water. For farmers, selling water is often more profitable than farming. Thus, it is a simple matter of supply and demand.
