Revenue Streams - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 125

Stung by the criticism, Strong objected to the accusations of greed. “We love this val-
ley. We live there,” he said. But his financial partners were growing increasingly uncom-
fortable with Hanne, who herself had become an obstruction to Strong's ambitions. She
declared to journalists that beneath the valley floor lay a sacred lake lined with crystals ;
a powerful energy field protected the lake from evil channelers from Vancouver who
had launched a massive psychic attack on the Baca. “I know one thing for sure,” she said.
“This water will never leave the valley!”
US Geological Survey hydrologists had discovered that the water under the San Luis
Valley is part of a vast underground system that flows from Canada through Colorado,
New Mexico, and Texas into Mexico. Made up of multiple connected aquifers, it is one
of North America's largest stores of groundwater. Strong's plan to siphon of much of
the water midstream had caught the attention of state and federal regulators.
In May 1994, after eight years of controversy, the Colorado Supreme Court denied
AWDI pumping rights and granted a motion filed by Strong's opponents to recover $3.1
million in legal and scientific costs. Strong's lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court,
which declined to hear the case. (After a protracted negotiation, Strong reportedly re-
tained certain rights to Baca's water and was paid $1.2 million by the water company.)
Strong threw in the towel. He resigned as chairman of AWDI and donated his company
shares to a foundation.
One of the loudest voices of opposition to AWDI had come from Gary Boyce , a local
rancher. Born into modest means, Boyce had let the San Luis Valley to work at eques-
trian stables across the country. He became an expert in training racehorses, and his
grateful clients guided Boyce into a series of lucrative investments. After he married,
he bought the ity-ive-hundred-acre Rancho Rosado, next to Strong's Baca Ranch, and
moved back to the beautiful valley.
In 1995, AWDI put ninety-seven thousand acres of Baca Ranch up for sale. The
Nature Conservancy bid on it, but Boyce won the parcel for about $16 million. Boyce's
partner in the deal was Farallon Capital Management , one of the world's largest hedge
funds, based in San Francisco. (It would later come to light that Farallon's Vaca Partners
put up all of the $8 million in equity and $8 million in loans used to purchase the ranch.)
The following year, Boyce incorporated Stockman's Water Company and declared his
intention to pump water from the valley. His neighbors were stunned. Asked by report-
ers how he could protest AWDI's water project one minute and promote his own pump-
ing scheme the next, Boyce just smiled and said, “ Water is gold .”
Now the Baca's water was worth even more than when AWDI was trying to com-
mercialize it. Between 1990 and 2000, a million people had moved to Colorado's Front
Range. Douglas County, between Denver and Colorado Springs, was the fastest-grow-