John Schweizer, chairman of the Super Ditch consortium, announced Wednesday the group has worked out an agreement with Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority to lease 2,000 acre feet of water to seven Colorado Springs-area entities. The leasing of irrigation water rights held by farmers working under seven canal companies in Southeastern Colorado would begin in 2011, Schweizer said.

Environmental groups have asked a judge to dismiss a water court application by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association for a power plant it plans to build at Holly.

Changes to proposed agriculture efficiency rules have been discussed during recent meetings between farmers and the Colorado Division of Water Resources, but a new set of rules has not been written, Water Division 2 Engineer Steve Witte said Wednesday. “There’s no other version of the rules,” Witte said.

Irrigators say progress is being made in meetings with state officials over proposed surface irrigation efficiency rules. Others have reached an understanding with the state on the need for the rules, if not the final form they will take.

Last month, the state’s top water official asked the state’s water users to visualize what the state would look like in 50 years, then decide whether they like that vision. Harris Sherman, director of the state Department of Natural Resources, then challenged those same leaders to make it better if they can.