New rule may cause farmers’ love of farming to wax cold

In 2003, Colorado was found to be in violation of the Arkansas River Compact, which was approved by Congress and signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1948. This resulted in a 13-year lawsuit after which Colorado was required to pay Kansas $34.6 million in damages, $1.1 million in court costs, and additional water.

Under the compact, Colorado was allowed to develop the Arkansas River Basin (e.g., by constructing dams or reservoirs) as long as its development did not “materially deplete” the flows apportioned to each state. However, Colorado subsequently authorized at least 2,000 new wells, which - in violation of the compact - increased the state’s total pumping of water from the river.

To avoid another lawsuit, rules have been put in place and Kansas is involved in developing the rules for water usage for Colorado farmers and must be compensated for overuse of the water in the Arkansas River. A new rule, Rule 10 Compliance Plan, is said to be better than the previous rule. But farmers are wondering about the fairness of it all.

Under Rule 10 farmers who make certain improvements, such as lining ditches  and laterals and/or the use of sprinkler systems, would have to provide a fee per farm and per acre, plus maps of acreage and details of irrigation practices.

This will be a problem for Don McBee, who irrigates off the Fort Lyon Canal. McBee has known for a long time that trouble was coming, and he has tried to warn other farmers. McBee said that the water received in the ending part of the Fort Lyon and Amity canals is so full of silt that the farmers have to let the water settle out before it can be used in sprinklers or drip systems. He has advised the farmers to line all of the ditches they can before regulations are put in force next year which may prevent lining of ditches and laterals. Now any improvements he makes could be fined.

The pond loss through seepage is extreme. He has proposed a pond study that will establish the water loss to seepage that occurs when water is stored in ponds. When water is short, ponds dry up and crack. He hopes to establish a standard percentage of loss to be credited to farmers.
Dr. Mark Bartolo of the Colorado State University Arkansas Valley Research Center  in Rocky Ford is working with an experiment called a lysimeter. The lysimeter is a measurement device rather like an eight-foot cube flower pot buried out in a field, he said. The gauges are on top, but the inward part is reached by going down a ladder underground. The lysimeter measures how much water a plant uses, how much passes through, and how much evaporates. The results from the lysimeter are used as a mathematical basis to correlate with weather data obtained from 12 small meteorological stations located from Pueblo to Holly. New developments in technology are happening all the time, but the lysimeter offers the most scientifically valid data for water consumption available at the present time. McBee hopes that his pond seepage study may receive approval similar to that granted to the lysimeter data.

McBee fears that although some fees which are established through Rule 10 and enacted by the water conservancy boards throughout the state starting in January of this year may be acceptable at the present time but will be a cause later for farmers to quit improving their irrigation systems or even to sell out.

Farmers who have been increasing the efficiency of their systems by going to sprinklers instead of flood irrigation, and also by other improvements, such as lining of ditches and laterals, are affected by the rules. If and when these rules go into effect, these farmers will be required to submit an application and a contract in order to use irrigation water because their more efficient practices reduce the water going back to the river through surface runoff and first level alluvial drainage. The application form will include 1) owner information, 2) farm information (water shares, acres of flood and sprinkler, headgates), 3) map of the areas, 4) statement and signature. Assessment by the Water Conservancy District must be paid in order that the Water Conservancy may buy the acre feet of water to replace the reduced runoff. New membership applications are proposed to be due on January 1 for the next season coverage, with applications accepted  until April with late fees attached.
Assessments will be determined by the board of directors annually. Asked how the farmers feel about this plan, Heath Kuntz of Leonard Rice Engineering replied that nobody likes to pay more taxes.

Chuck Hanagan of the Farm Service Agency in Rocky Ford said that water rights are owned in the state of Colorado and that “the water is ours and we have a right to use it to grow the crops we’ve always grown with it.” Farmers have to put up with so many expenses and so much taxation that a good year is a break-even year. He doubts that any Fortune 500 CEO would invest in a business where a person can do everything right and still be wiped out by a 15-minute hail storm.

In short, the only reason to be a farmer is that you love the life, said Hanagan.