Farmers plead for irrigation plan

Meeting sought with those opposing restarting pumps

Jerd Smith And Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 18, 2006 at midnight

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GILCREST - Dozens of farmers gathered in a dry field Wednesday and demanded a face-to-face meeting with opponents of an emergency plan that would allow their irrigation wells to be restarted.

"We need the city of Boulder to meet with us quickly to save these crops," Tom Cech said at a noon news conference that drew farmers and lawmakers.

Cech is manager of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District. The district is home to 440 irrigation wells that were shut down more than a week ago because farmers did not have enough water on hand to meet the requirements of a strict new law designed to protect the South Platte River.

The shutdown occurred after the farmers already had planted more than $1 million in crops.

"It's critical the water be turned on as soon as possible," said Frank Eckhardt, whose farm was the site of the hastily arranged news conference. "The onions need the water now."

In the past nine days, a number of cities, including Loveland and Aurora, have stepped forward with offers of water to help solve the crisis.

But other communities, including Boulder, Highlands Ranch and Sterling, as well as farmers who rely on the river's surface supplies, oppose restarting the wells, saying the well owners don't have enough water to qualify to pump under the rigorous new rules. They say additional pumping will harm the river and their own supplies.

In 2002, more than a dozen Front Range cities and farmers who rely on surface water successfully sued the state and won a stricter set of rules for managing the river and the wells, which rely on a shallow aquifer that also supplies the river.

Though hundreds of well-dependent farmers have been able to find enough water to comply with the law, the 200 farms affected by the cease-pumping order had been operating under a temporary plan now deemed insufficient.

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the state's second-largest water provider, has said it can bring more than 10,000 acre-feet of water from its Windy Gap Project on the Western Slope to aid the well owners this year, but that the water will be available only for a few weeks, while the spring runoff is at its peak.

Farmers have said they need water on their fields within days to keep the crops from drying up.

As the spring weather continues hot and dry, days of meetings between farmers, water providers and politicians have yet to yield a compromise all sides can live with.

Boulder City Manager Frank Bruno said late Wednesday that he had not had a chance to respond to the farmers' request for a meeting and that he would have to consult with the city attorney's office before he could commit to one.

Earlier this week, Carol Ellinghouse, Boulder's water resources coordinator, said the city would need several days to complete its own technical analysis of the farmers' plan before making a decision.

At a meeting Wednesday night in Greeley, about 500 farmers and well owners denounced Boulder and Sterling and the three special districts that have opposed restarting the wells - the Centennial Water and Sanitation District, which serves Highlands Ranch; the Henrylyn Irrigation Co., which provides water in the Keenesburg and Hudson areas; and the Duccomon Trust, a Grand County mining operation.

Farmer Rex Craven said he and other farmers cannot afford to wait. Craven told others at an informational meeting at the Island Grove Events Center in Greeley that he already hyas planted sugar beets and corn on his farm south of LaSalle.

"Do we pump?" Craven asked.

"That's the most important question of the night," Cech answered. "What's the solution?"

"The solution is 'I don't know,' " said Jim Reasoner, president of the board of directors of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District.

Reasoner conceded that any solution is dependent on how opponents respond to the proposal to bring in the Windy Gap water.

Boulder's Ellinghouse and Bruno, stung by criticism that the city is hurting the well owners' crops, said others have been supportive of their strong stance on the law.

At the news conference Wednesday afternoon, however, Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Ament continued to hammer away at the opponents' failure to act on the emergency proposal.

"Are we trying to take advantage of these cities? Not on your life," Ament said. "They're concerned that if we turn on these pumps we're going to harm their water rights. But we can capture 10,000 acre-feet if we can move pretty soon. If we get water back in the river (which occurs as wells turn on and they begin replenishing the stream as the law requires), it will benefit everyone."

Still, opponents said they need more time to complete their technical analysis of the proposal, which they received late Monday.

That didn't sit well with angry farmers Wednesday night who said the law is flawed because the protesting parties don't have to prove the South Platte River would be harmed by current well levels.

"The statute is based on an allegation," said Joe Hunter, a well owner and farmer near Milliken. "Somebody needs to prove that there's a harm, and they haven't done that."

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