Water crisis becomes urgent amid dry skies, wells

Eastern plains farmers confronted by uncertain future as drought, cities' relentless thirst threaten agriculture

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 9, 2007 at midnight

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FORT MORGAN - Nearly half the powerful irrigation wells that watered farmlands in the South Platte River Basin are now idle, silenced by drought, strict new water laws and a fierce battle for water now entering its fifth year.

Since the drought struck in 2002, 4,000 of 9,000 wells have stopped pumping on this stretch of the eastern plains, leaving barren thousands of acres of corn and sugar beet fields.

Morgan County assessor Bob Wooldridge estimates his corner of farm country has lost about $32 million in annual cash flow. Property values - on land that can no longer be irrigated - have dropped 12.5 percent and are likely to go much lower as more land loses its irrigated classification.

Jeff Bieber, a tractor dealer in Fort Morgan, estimates he's lost more than $1 million in revenue each of the past three years, in part because of the well shutdowns.

"It's really slowed down out here," Wooldridge said. "We're going to be lucky to hold our own."

Similar scenarios are playing out in other Western states, including Idaho, where population growth and rising water use are forcing strict river management and better integration of underground and surface supplies.

Along the South Platte, fast-growing cities have spent millions of dollars in court to force farmers to comply with new laws.

That Colorado isn't alone in its water angst provides scant comfort to people like the Frank family in Weld County, who have had 12 wells shut off since the crisis began. They had always assumed a special water district that covered their farms would handle any problems that occurred. But it closed its doors, unable to find enough water to comply with new state rules governing well use.

Since then, the Franks, who lease most of their farm ground, have shrunk their operations to 600 acres, down from nearly 1,500. These days they're growing dryland winter wheat and sunflowers and running a small hauling business in an effort to keep afloat.

Lauri Frank said her family would take a hailstorm any day over the legal quagmire they're now trying to negotiate.

"We've never seen a battle like this," she said.

Task force formed

Last month, Gov. Bill Ritter formed a broad-based task force to examine whether the river can be managed more efficiently to benefit well users, surface users and cities.

Among the ideas being considered:

• Dredging century-old farm reservoirs to create more storage space to capture more water in wet years.

• Forgiving a small amount of old water debt that well users owe the river. Some of the debts are decades old.

• Giving state water regulators more flexibility to manage the river during the winter, when irrigators and cities need it less.

Whether Ritter's task force can resolve so far intractable issues along the river remains to be seen.

Alan Frank said he and other farmers worry that, in the end, the task force will prove little more than political window dressing.

The crisis has been brewing since the 1960s, when new studies began showing the irrigation wells in this rich farm region pull water from the same aquifer supplying the river. In the 1930s and 1940s, the state actually encouraged drilling the wells to "drought-proof" the South Platte Basin - a policy that resulted in the largest farm economy in the state, spanning more than 1 million acres.

Once the science of the aquifer was better understood, lawmakers in 1969 approved a law requiring well users to replenish the river. But the law was rarely invoked, as the South Platte enjoyed decades of abundant water.

That all changed after the 2002 drought hit. The Colorado Supreme Court stepped in, and strict new rules were approved requiring well users to put much more water back in the river. Those who couldn't find the water - either because it was too expensive or it had already been purchased by cities - were ordered to cease pumping.

Odd sense of hope

But even as the South Platte Basin struggles, there is an odd sense of hope in unexpected places and a resolve to make the river work better.

"Don't write our obituary yet," said Arnie Good, a fourth-generation Morgan County corn grower, his immaculate farmhouse cool under the shade trees on a recent June day.

Biblical texts line a bookshelf in his family's sitting room. A three-ring binder filled with water regulations and court rulings sits neatly on the dining room table.

Corn prices are $4 a bushel, twice as high as they were a year ago. Spring flows in the South Platte, though still below average, are higher this year than they've been since before the drought struck.

Though Good can't pump three of his irrigation wells - which represent about $320,000 in gross revenue to his family farms - he said there are ways to share water on the eastern plains.

This year, like dozens of other well users who can't pump, Good has planted dryland crops. They generate roughly half - sometimes only a fourth - of the revenue a good corn crop produces, but they provide some income, enough cash to keep going a while longer.

"We're not crying," he said. "We're not whining. We're not looking for a handout."

He's also not interested in suing the state over the lost well use, an idea other farmers are still evaluating. "That won't keep my farms viable," he said. "I'm interested in ways to keep my farms going."

Last month, Good was one of 23 people invited by Ritter to join the task force. The group has 90 days to deliver a list of options to state legislators.

Harold Evans, who sits on the board of Greeley's water utility, is also on the task force. Greeley is among those cities that have battled to force well users to find more water for the river.

Few viable options

Evans said few options currently look viable.

"But maybe there is something someone has missed. We need a multi-pronged approach. We need conservation. We desperately need storage, and unfortunately, (any successful solution) is going to take significant amounts of water."

Jim Yahn, another task force member, manages the North Sterling Irrigation District and the Prewitt Reservoir system, both feisty, century-old surface-water systems that have battled the well users since 2002.

Yahn said he's willing to entertain any unexplored options.

"We're all farmers out here," Yahn said. "We don't like to see other farmers struggle. I can't say that I see any solutions right now. But I hate to say there's nothing that can be done, with this task force just getting started."

Yahn, like others, would like to see if more storage could be created by dredging the old irrigation reservoirs that sit along the river from Kersey to Julesberg. He estimates that up to 3,000 acre-feet of new storage could be had in the North Sterling Reservoir alone.

That's enough space to store water for dozens of wells to begin pumping or for cities to use.

If the state could find money to do the work, Yahn said he would not oppose such an effort. In the past, warring water-users have protested mightily if the state tried to step in and help one side and not the other.

"What I'm hoping for is a conversation," said John Stulp, Colorado's new commissioner of agriculture. "We're dealing with a river that, in the past, has had abundant amounts of water. We're seeing a change now brought on by the drought, but also by development. I think there's room for some discussion. But we have to get beyond the rhetoric and the courtroom antics."

Bernie Pagel owns a mobile home park in Fort Morgan. His two wells were ordered shut down last year. Since then, he's been trying to find new permanent water sources, but he must first get a special water court to approve any operating plan.

In the meantime, Pagel says he's invested more than $150,000 to comply with the new law, including $60,000 to purchase an interest in a local irrigation reservoir. If all else fails, Pagel says he'll hold on to the new water, even if it doesn't satisfy the water court's requirements because water prices are going up. In a few years, if all else fails, he'll be able to sell out and make a handsome profit.

"Headache-wise, we're suffering," Pagel says. "But I think the water is going to be a good investment, no matter what."

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5474

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