'Tough news' dooms crops

Rejected proposal would have let farmers start wells

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 3, 2006 at midnight

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Three Front Range cities and others worried about protecting their shares of South Platte River water Friday refused an emergency plan that would have allowed hundreds of irrigation wells to restart.

The decision dooms millions of dollars of crops already in the ground.

The well-dependent farmers and some water officials were stunned.

"It's tough news," said Greg Hertzke, water-acquisitions manager for the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, which represents the well owners. "Really tough."

The wells were shut down May 5 by State Engineer Hal Simpson, Colorado's top water regulator, because the well owners couldn't meet the operating guidelines of a strict new law designed to protect the river.

The shutdown triggered a crisis from Brighton to Fort Morgan, as farmers who had just finished planting realized their crops would dry up without the well water.

Within days, Gov. Bill Owens declared a disaster in Adams, Weld and Morgan counties, where most of the wells are located. By May 20, other cities had agreed to bring extra water from the Western Slope, in hopes of helping the more than 200 farms affected by the shutdown.

And this week, the powerful Colorado River Water Conservation District, which represents 15 Western Slope counties, signaled qualified support for the well owners, saying in a June 1 letter that it would not fight their emergency-relief plan, despite having serious concerns about the use of Western Slope water to solve the crisis.

Nonetheless, officials in Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Sterling and some farmers who rely solely on the river's surface supplies said they simply could not agree with the emergency proposal because they feel it would stress the river too much.

"The farmers are still thousands of acre-feet short of water," said Ned Williams, director of utilities for the city of Boulder. "Even with the extra water, they are still short."

If they had been allowed to restart their wells, Williams said, "The situation would have gone from being bad this year to be a lot worse next year."

Williams was referring to the delicate interplay between the shallow aquifer that supplies the wells and partially supplies the river. When the wells pump, it reduces the river's flows gradually, often over a period of years.

"It's over," Simpson said Friday. "It's unfortunate that they couldn't find more water. But we're having a very dry year. We have to enforce the law."

Because of the shutdown Green Acres Turf Farm near Hudson will lose $3.5 million worth of sod, manager Raul Mota said. "We've already begun telling customers they will need to look for other bids next year because we won't be able to supply them," Mota said. "I'm not even sure we'll be here."

Robert Geisick, a farmer outside Wiggins, said the well crisis has dried up 1,200 of the 2,400 acres he and his three brothers and their families farm.

"Half of our farm is shut down," Geisick said. "We spent $184,000 this year for nothing," he added, referring to fees he has paid to comply with the new law and to plant an onion crop this year.

Others farmers, however, have said the state has been too generous to the well owners, who've had three years to meet the requirements of the new law.

Buying water rights and crafting an acceptable water plan often takes years to accomplish.

Geitsick and hundreds of other well owners had been operating under a temporary plan that Simpson rejected this year, in part because drought conditions this spring reduced the river's flows and because water leases the well owners thought they had had lined up were withdrawn when spring water forecasts came in lower than expected.

"I feel sorry for these guys," said Steven Janssen, a water attorney who represents farmers who oppose the well owners. "But my farmers got about 20 percent of the (surface) water they were expecting, and they're trying to figure out what to do, too. It's a disaster for all of us."

Russell George, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said he is disappointed that a compromise between the well owners and their opponents couldn't be crafted, especially given the extraordinary effort it took to bring extra water from the Western Slope.

"There is water in the stream now," George said. "But, clearly, the objectors have no willingness to help, and that's too bad. The consequences of that decision rests with them."

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5474

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