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Water Well Woes Connect to Boulder

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 12:02 CDT

By Greg Avery, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

May 17--Farmers are scrambling to find water for their eastern Colorado fields after the state, trying to protect South Platte River water rights, recently cut off access to irrigation wells.

The issue may seem removed from Boulder County, but people need to look only as far as city hall or a local organic grocery store to find connections.

Two weeks ago, the city told the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District its members could not pump water from 440 farm irrigation wells along the South Platte River basin this year due to worries the district couldn't replenish the river water and would deprive others, including the city of Boulder, of supplies they're entitled to receive.

Cutting off the wells came after three years of pressure by Boulder, other Front Range cities and farmers reliant on surface water in the South Platte basin that covers much of the northern Front Range and plains.

Seeds had already been sowed when the decision was made, leaving portions of dozens of farms in Weld County dry. Farmers are scrambling to find emergency water.

Harry Strohauer has grown vegetables for 31 years on 3,000 acres south of Greeley. Losing the use of wells on his property would leave a third of his farm dry, and cripple his attempt to enter the organic produce game, he said.

Having no well water would kill the 20-acre pilot plot for the organic red and fingerling potatoes and onions Strohauer is growing for Whole Foods stores, including the one in Boulder.

He started selling the organics to Whole Foods last season and seeks to make a bigger customer out of the grocery chain.

More acres of Strohauer's farm will pass the three-year, pesticide-free mark required to be an organic grower next year. But he worries the state's well problems this year will jeopardize his relationship with Whole Foods.

"We've put a tremendous amount of time into developing those markets, and you can lose those," Strohauer said.

Colorado water rights give holders of the oldest rights priority over those with younger rights.

The rights owned by many plains farms outrank cities' newer rights to store water in reservoirs. If well irrigators deplete the South Platte without replacing their water, as required, farmers using the river downstream could force cities to forgo some of their drinking water to make up for the shortfall.

Well users had been pumping under approval of the state water engineer since 1973. In 2001, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that effectively stripped the engineer's office of authority to approve well use when it affected the water rights of others.

A small version of that scenario played out in 2003, said Carol Ellinghouse, Boulder's water resources coordinator. The city had to let Boulder Creek water it would normally store in Barker Reservoir flow out to the South Platte to make up for water taken out by wells, she said.

While it didn't jeopardize the city's water supply, city water officials are galvanized by the possibility that one day -- possibly in a drought year -- it could.

The cities consider it a victory to make the well users replace water in the South Platte and not make communities upstream the de facto water backup, Ellinghouse said.

"They had 30 years of sliding in under the water administration rules everybody else had to abide by," she said.

That strikes some well-dependent farmers downstream as cold-hearted when business opportunities and, for some, livelihoods hang in the balance.

"Boulder's looking at it like it could theoretically affect them some day. We're looking at it, and it does affect us daily," Strohauer said. "People lose markets ... It'll have an effect longer than one year."

The Central Colorado Water Conservancy District is trying to lease temporary water to salvage the well-irrigating farmers' year. The emergency arrangement will have to satisfy the cities involved, especially Boulder, which took the lead in battling the well irrigation, said Hal Simpson, the state water engineer.

"By being so adamant, it has created this short-term situation," Simpson said.

The Central Colorado Water Conservancy District has storage rights for reservoirs being made north of Firestone. The water could replenish the South Platte via the St. Vrain River east of Longmont, offsetting the well irrigation, but that project won't be completed until next year at the earliest.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

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Source: Daily Camera

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