From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):
The shallow aquifer leaned on heavily by farmers in the San Luis Valley is up 58,000 acre-feet over last year at this time.
The news delivered by Rio Grande Water Conservation District Engineer Allen Davey marks the third straight year the aquifer has gained.
“The last three years have seen a significant change in direction,” he told the district’s board Tuesday.
Davey, as he has in previous years, credited gains to the reduction in groundwater pumping by well owners in Subdistrict No. 1, which takes in 163,000 irrigated acres in the north-central part of the San Luis Valley.
The subdistrict, which was implemented four years ago, assesses a combination of fees on its members that aim to reduce pumping and also pay to fallow farm ground.
Groundwater pumping was expected to be 238,000 acre-feet, according to the subdistrict documents, although a final tally won’t come until later in the year.
Landowners in the subdistrict have also fallowed 14,245 acres of ground since 2013 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.
The program pays farmers to either permanently retire ground or fallow for 15 years.
Davey also said Mother Nature has cooperated by providing decent snowpack.
“If we can just get in that cycle where we’re average, we have a good future ahead of us,” he said.
The shallow aquifer, also known as the unconfined aquifer, recharges from stream flow and from the return flows that follow surface-water irrigation by farmers.
Once stream flows dwindle in late summer, farmers typically rely on groundwater to finish their crops.
The shallow aquifer has recovered by nearly 250,000 acre-feet since 2013.
The aquifer would have to recover by another 350,000 acre-feet to meet the goals laid out in the subdistrict’s management plan.
