From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Erin McIntyre):
If you notice that some fields across the valley remain bare when others are sprouting with crops this spring, don’t be alarmed.
Behind those temporarily empty rows is an innovative experiment targeting water savings.
Farmers with the Grand Valley Water Users Association are participating in a pilot study to help determine if it’s feasible to intermittently fallow fields to save water in reservoirs.
The move to pay those in the agricultural community to not plant a portion of their crops is the first time an experiment of its kind has been done in the Grand Valley, and it’s one that could change the way water providers operate in the future to conserve precious resources during drought.
With reservoir levels dwindling and low snowpack levels across many areas in the West, water managers are trying this new tool out to see if it could help them hedge against dry years and protect against catastrophe that could result from scarcity along the Colorado River.
This experiment has a goal of helping to shore up water reserves in Lake Powell, which isn’t just a recreation destination, but an insurance policy to protect Upper Basin states like Colorado against demands on water from the Lower Basin, including California.
The Conserved Consumptive Use Pilot Project began last year, and 10 farmers were chosen from a lottery to participate in the program, which compensates them for not planting a portion of their fields. Instead, the water would be banked in storage, hedging against scarcity in times of drought.
The initial phase of the pilot project is projected to save 3,200 acre-feet of water, which is a drop in the bucket of the 7.5 million-acre feet of Colorado River water earmarked for delivery to Arizona, Nevada and California per year by compact agreement. But it’s a start in exploring how water managers can be flexible and avoid heavy-handed edicts from the federal government, pilot participants said.
“We’re trying to find ways to protect ourselves,” said Luke Gingerich, an engineer contracted to manage the pilot program with GVWUA Manager Mark Harris.
“How do we get ahead of this curve for our benefit?” Harris said. “And how do we do it without damaging people’s interests?”
Organizers of the project have spent extensive time researching the legal implications of fallowing fields and leaving agricultural water in the stream to collect in reservoirs.
Farmers interested in the pilot needed to meet several criteria. They needed to be actively farming at least 120 acres for the past three years, and could only commit half of their acreage for fallowing, among other rules. Some of the stipulations are meant to discourage speculation, which has happened in other lease-fallow situations, Gingerich said.
Commodity prices for crops are hovering near multiyear lows, making the deal more attractive for farmers who are guaranteed at least $356 per acre for participation in the pilot.
Harris called the record-low commodity prices in agriculture an “unhappy coincidence” that may have led some farmers to be more open to the experiment. He said some growers were attracted to the staggered fallowing agreements, allowing them to fallow until August, September or October, which would allow them to plant crops like winter wheat for the next season. Overall, the fallowed land is distributed across the association’s service area, and amounts to less than 5 percent of the total acreage.
The pilot project is about building a contingency plan, preparing for the worst-case scenario. In this case, that would be if water levels at Lake Powell drop below the point where power can be generated, which would likely trigger water curtailment in Colorado and other Upper Basin states.
The program has been funded by a number of entities, including the Colorado River Water Conservation District, the Nature Conservancy and the Water Bank Work Group.
Dan Birch, deputy general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, said his agency has been working on this plan for about eight years. He said the motivation is to find a sensible compromise to avoid dire consequences if Lake Powell’s water levels continue to drop.
“What’s going on overall in the Colorado River system is, things aren’t that good,” Birch said. “You really don’t have to look any further than the reservoir levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Those are our savings accounts.”
The reality that water managers are facing is that if water demands continue to increase while snowpack levels dwindle, everyone who depends on the Colorado River isn’t more than a few dry years away from dire straits, said Hannah Holm, coordinator of Colorado Mesa University’s Hutchins Water Center.
“It’s just becoming more and more clear that the Colorado River Basin as a whole could be in real trouble because there’s more water coming out of our system than what’s going into the system, since about 2000,” Holm said. “This is an effort to get in front of it and avoid a crisis.”