DENVER -- Some northern Colorado farmers who had their wells shut off last summer will make their case this week that their pumping doesn't hurt the South Platte River.

A multi-day hearing starting Tuesday before the Colorado Ground Water Commission will examine a petition to create the new Box Elder Creek groundwater basin in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Elbert, and Weld counties.

The petition asking the state to designate about 300,000 acres as a water basin, is part of a solution sought by farmers to prevent the same conditions where farmers lost crops after the state shutdown some 400 wells.

"For some of these farmers, this is really their last chance to save their farms," said Tom Cech, director of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, one of the proposal's primary backers.

Several ditch companies, cities and major water providers, including Aurora, Greeley, Sterling, Denver Water, and Denver International Airport, oppose the plan.

"What we have seen from the evidence is that these wells are currently depleting about 15,000 acre feet of water and we expect that to be a continuing ongoing process," said Tim Buchanan, an Arvada attorney representing two ditch companies.

State officials say the wells take water that would otherwise flow into the river. A law passed in 2002 says that wells must be turned off in dry years to make sure that farmers with higher-priority rights get their share of water.

Farmers were operating under a plan to replace the water they draw from their wells.

Last year, state officials ordered the wells shutdown because high country snowpack began melting faster than expected and the water owners who had promised to lease water to the farmers reneged because of the drought conditions.

Some farmers contend they draw their water from the yet undesignated groundwater basin, which they say has little connection to the surface water that they must replace.

Bill Coyle, a farmer from Bennett, irrigates about 94 acres of his sod farm from groundwater wells about 60 miles from the river.

"Farming is a hard business to be in because you always worry about the weather," Coyle said, adding he's spent more than $100,000 on water attorneys and engineers to come up with his replacement plans. "But then to throw those worries into the equation, it's tough."

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