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Not even halfway through the legal battle, the city has spent more than $200,000 on its recreational water rights application.

That compares with the $280,000 the city had budgeted for the legal battle it anticipated.

More than half of the city's expenditures thus far -- $106,000 -- have gone to the legal firm fighting its water battle, Porzak, Browning & Bushong LLP. The city has spent almost $7,000 in fees paid to other city attorneys.

The city also has paid $36,700 to Recreation Engineering Inc. and $37,566 to WW Wheeler Associates, as part of the process to acquire the water right.

In total, the city has spent $207,000 on its RICD application and has pledged to spend $10,000 more to fight a bill from Republican state Sen. Jack Taylor that would restrict recreational water rights.

The city's expenditures were made public through an open records request filed by resident Omar Campbell.

Council President Paul Strong said the totals are not surprising. He knew the figure was in the $190,000 range before the Senate bill was introduced.

He said the cost will increase as the city takes the RICD application to District 6 Water Court in the summer. The case has a great likelihood of going all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court, as four other RICD cases have done.

Because much of the work has been completed for the first water rights hearing, Strong doubts the cost will double by the end of the process.

"The preparation on that was the lion's share of the expense," Strong said. "It would be real surprising if it doubled. I think we have done the majority of the work at this time."

By the end of the process, Strong said, the city probably will spend more than it had anticipated, largely because it did not foresee the large amount of opposition it has received.

Council members have known all along that acquiring recreational water rights would take money. When the city agreed to apply for the RICD in December 2003, it was done with the knowledge it would cost between $100,000 and $200,000 in legal fees.

In its 2004 budget, the city allocated $270,000 for recreational water rights. The item was part of its capital improvement budget.

The city also spent $11,000 in 2003 on filing for recreational water rights.

The city based its projected legal fees on what communities such as Golden, Breckenridge and Vail spent on their water rights application. Those numbers were $200,000 to $300,000. However, those communities also did not have any opposition to the applications, with the exception of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

The city has seen a significant opposition from the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, Routt County and the towns of Yampa and Oak Creek.

The amount of money already spent is another reason the city is fighting the Senate bill proposed by Taylor, a Steamboat Springs Republican, so vigorously, Strong said.

"We have invested a large amount of the taxpayers' money, and we need to protect that investment," he said.

-- To reach Christine Metz call 871-4229 or e-mail cmetz@steamboatpilot.com