Headwaters Summer 2022: How Are Colorado Farms And Ranches Managing Water For Tomorrow?

HOW ARE COLORADO FARMS AND RANCHES MANAGING WATER FOR TOMORROW?

SPRING 2022

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g Celebratin Years

Save the Date 16th Annual President’s Reception

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022 6 p.m. at Balistreri Vineyards, Denver Join us, together with friends & colleagues, for a special anniversary celebration, awards banquet and fundraiser benefiting Water Education Colorado. It will be an evening to remember!

Details: www.watereducationcolorado.org/programs-events/presidents-reception/

Pulse New Legislation Brings Water Wins With the Colorado General Assembly’s 2022 session concluded in May, new water laws include funding for turf replacement, wildfire mitigation, groundwater sustainability and Colorado’s Water Plan.

7 P-Free Lawns to Combat Algae Blooms Drought, rising temperatures and the use of phosphorouslaced lawn fertilizer is making the blooms more common and dangerous in Colorado.

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THE SUSTAINABLE AG WATER PRACTICES ISSUE Colorado’s farmers and ranchers

are acutely attuned to the stresses on water availability and quality—that’s why they have been adapting and measuring the impact of on-the-ground practices that boost efficiency, leave water cleaner than before, and stretch their inputs so they can grow and raise more with less water. Producers may require a lot of water to sustain their livelihood, but they’re also pioneers and innovators, pushing the limits on what’s possible when it comes to sustainable water management on their farms and ranches.

Inside DIRECTOR’S NOTE WHAT WE’RE DOING

Contents | Summer 2022

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WEco's upcoming events, reporting and more.

5 FROM THE EDITOR

6 AROUND THE STATE

Water news from across Colorado.

9 MEMBER’S CORNER

Celebrate the impact of WEco’s members.

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Farms of the Future

Colorado’s agricultural producers make efficient use of water resources on the ground and in the greenhouse as they look ahead toward a future with less water.

By Allen Best

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Cultivating Cleaner Water

Farmers and ranchers are adopting irrigation strategies that leave surface and groundwater cleaner. That’s benefiting the environment— and farmers’ bottom line.

By Kelly Bastone

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How Do We Sustain Agriculture?

The state’s rural communities and producers face an onslaught of challenges that range from water shortage to economics to healthcare.

Sustaining Colorado’s agricultural economy means facing them, head-on.

By Alejandra Wilcox

Above: Phillip Chavez, who runs Diamond A Farms in La Junta, Colo., uses conservation tillage practices, cover cropping, and precision irrigation and nutrient management to improve soil health and water retention, encourage his crops to grow deep roots, and protect water quality. Photo by Christi Bode Skeie courtesy of Colorado’s Water Quality Control Division Nonpoint Source Program On the cover: At Waters Farms just outside of Fruita in western Colorado, Troy Waters irrigates his row crops. Waters manages for salinity, implementing best practices that improve water quality on his farm and beyond. Photo by Christi Bode Skeie courtesy of Colorado’s Water Quality Control Division Nonpoint Source Program H E A DWAT E R S S U M M E R 2 0 2 2

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jayla Poppleton Executive Director

Lisa Darling President

Kendra Longworth Membership and Engagement Officer

“E

xhilarated” is how one participant on Water Education Colorado’s 2022 Annual River Basin Tour described herself post-tour: “I had a hard time winding down because I was so exhilarated by what I learned, who I met, and what we saw.” The tour spanned three days and two of Colorado’s “sub-watersheds” or river basins within the Upper Colorado Basin, crossed the Continental Divide four times, and featured sites, studies and projects reflective of Colorado’s connection to the broader Colorado River Basin as part of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact.

It was rewarding for our staff to know that we’d delivered a program that inspired, energized and motivated participants to get creative and collaborative around our most critical and urgent issues.

The day before the tour kicked off, Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton announced that the seven U.S. states that share the Colorado River would need to make major cuts in water use, to the tune of 2 to 4 million acre-feet—that’s 25% or more of the river’s most recent average annual flows—in the next 18 months to avoid system collapse. They were given 60 days to develop a plan to do it.

This puts incredible pressure on everyone, but agricultural producers especially feel the target on their backs as they hold the most significant rights to water. Some will find opportunity in this, and others may suffer, already faced with drought conditions and thin profit margins. Though no one is certain yet what role Colorado will have in helping to produce this savings, on the whole it will require myriad substantive actions to come close to meeting the Commissioner’s directive.

As we rolled across western Colorado with this broader Colorado River context as the backdrop, we encountered individuals and organizations who are putting their heads down and their shoulders into solutions to challenges both old and new. We bring some of those stories to you in this issue as we showcase new approaches and practices on farms and ranches that are increasingly protective of water.

Farmers and ranchers are innovating and, in doing so, helping Colorado continue to reap the benefits of strengthening rural economies, savoring locally grown food, and preserving agricultural landscapes, even as water stress increases and directives, like Commissioner Touton’s, demand water use reductions. (On-farm improvements and economic resiliency are also goals in the Colorado Water Plan update, which includes a focus on “Robust Agriculture” and was released for a 90-day public comment period on June 30. Weigh in at engagecwcb.org.)

The tour, Headwaters … these are just a few opportunities we’re providing this year for those who make water their work and their passion. Other things not to miss?

Check out the year-long Water ’22 campaign, with the message “It all starts here,” at water22.org. And help us celebrate a milestone anniversary at our President’s Reception on Sept. 8. Twenty years ago, it was drought that birthed WEco and inspired our mission. The work is only gaining importance and we are privileged to do it with all of you!

—Executive Director—

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STAFF

Scott Williamson Education Programs Manager Suzy Hiskey Administrative and Programs Assistant Cailyn Andrews K-12 Water Educator Liason Jerd Smith Fresh Water News Editor

Dulcinea Hanuschak Vice President Brian Werner Secretary Alan Matlosz Treasurer Cary Baird Perry Cabot Nick Colglazier Kerry Donovan Paul Fanning Eric Hecox Matt Heimerich

Julie Kallenberger Caitlin Coleman David LaFrance Publications and Digital Resources Managing Editor Dan Luecke Charles Chamberlin Headwaters Graphic Designer

Kevin McBride Karen McCormick Peter Ortego Kelly Romero-Heaney Elizabeth Schoder Don Shawcroft Laura Spann Chris Treese

THE MISSION of Water Education Colorado is to ensure Coloradans are informed on water issues and equipped to make decisions that guide our state to a sustainable water future. WEco is a non-advocacy organization committed to providing educational opportunities that consider diverse perspectives and facilitate dialogue in order to advance the conversation about water.

HEADWATERS magazine is published three times each year by Water Education Colorado. Its goals are to raise awareness of current water issues, and to provide opportunities for engagement and further learning.

THANK YOU to all who assisted in the development of this issue. Headwaters’ reputation for balance and accuracy in reporting is achieved through rigorous consultation with experts and an extensive peer review process, helping to make it Colorado’s leading publication on water. © Copyright 2022 by the Colorado Foundation for Water

Education DBA Water Education Colorado. ISSN: 1546-0584 1600 Downing St., Suite 200 Denver, CO 80218 (303) 377-4433

What we’re doing Water 22: It All Starts Here The Water ’22 public awareness campaign has been underway for six months! This yearlong effort is being spearheaded by Water Education Colorado, and was launched with the support of Gov. Polis in January when he declared 2022 the Year of Water. Water ‘22 has gained widespread attention as partner entities work to co-implement activities and elevate the visibility of the campaign across the state. Campaign highlights to-date include: • Six “celebrity” PSAs produced and widely circulated (All available at bit.ly/Water22PSAplaylist) • 333 pledges to conserve and protect Colorado water made • 72 events highlighting Water ’22 held • 5,000+ 22 Ways to Care for Colorado Water in 2022 flyers distributed • 31 news stories featuring the campaign, with combined reach of 16.4 million Please Join the Flow of Water ’22 if you haven’t already!

• Take the Water ‘22 pledge to show your commitment by scanning the QR code below.

• Follow Water Education Colorado and Water ’22 on social media to stay connected.

• Pick up a copy of our next book club selection and join an upcoming author talk.

• Invite a speaker from our Speakers Bureau to your next event.

• Encourage K–12 students in your community to participate in the Student Showcase, open through Oct. 1.

Learn more and plug in at water22.org.

Water ’22 Mini Tours In 2022, WEco will host or support nine free mini-tours, one in each major river basin in Colorado and the Metro area. Part of the Water ’22 campaign, the mini-tours feature local water issues of importance to regional Basin Implementation Plans and the broader Colorado Water Plan and are an opportunity to engage members of the public in the work of the Basin Roundtables.

Tours have been held so far in the South Platte (April 27) and Gunnison (May 5) basins. WEco and local partners conduct direct outreach to recruit a diversity of participants for each tour, from students to business owners, elected officials and more. Film footage captured during the tours and edited for broad dissemination will be publicized when ready. Remaining tours will continue into July, August and September.

Reach out to scott@wateredco.org if you are interested in participating!

Water ’22 Student Showcase Has your kiddo created a summer masterpiece at camp or home? Consider moving it from the fridge and submitting it to the Water ’22 Student Showcase, open to all K–12 students, ages 5–19, throughout Colorado! This FREE Student Showcase is designed to help young people connect with the value of water in daily life and the natural and built world around them, encourage critical thinking, and emphasize the crucial role young people play as future water leaders. Encourage a young person in your life to show their talent and share their voice: Submissions can range from Creative Writing to Photography & Film to Music & Performing Arts to Modeling & Engineering.

Check out water22.org/youth-engagement to learn more.

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What we’re doing

FROM THE EDITOR A Conversation with

NICHOLAS COLGLAZIER If you can improve your soil health … if you’re able to store more water in your soil, that means that you’ll have a better chance of making a crop in a hotter, drier year.

Nicholas Colglazier We spoke with Nicholas, a member of the WEco Board of Trustees and executive director of the Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, about the challenges facing corn growers and the organization’s work to promote water efficiency improvement measures. That work includes sharing opportunities through the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Soil Health Program.

Read more on the blog at watereducationcolorado.org.

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f you’re a dedicated Headwaters magazine reader, you’ve likely read or thought about agricultural water use. But what does on-farm and ranch water actually look like? Who are Colorado’s producers and how are they watering their crops?

In this issue, we’re excited to share stories from farmers, ranchers, researchers, crop consultants and others working in agriculture, to explore how they’re thinking about the water they use to raise crops and livestock.

As we report in “Farms of the Future” (page 11) many innovative farmers and ranchers foresee a water-short future—continuing to produce food might necessarily mean doing so with less water. For them, production is both a way of life and a livelihood. Stretching water supplies can positively impact an operation’s bottom line and keep a producer on the land and in business.

“Many are chasing the cost savings that can result from efficient irrigation practices,” writes Kelly Bastone in “Cultivating Cleaner Water” (page 20), where we learn about growers who are more efficiently applying water and taking other actions to minimize polluted runoff into streams and aquifers.

In these pages, we focus on those water-motivated producers, but there is also market-driven demand for regenerative and water-efficient agriculture.

“When you see companies like McDonalds and Walmart come out with sustainability statements on row crops you know that at some point those are going to take ahold and it’s going to impact what we can and can’t do on our farms,” says Nicholas Colglazier, executive director of the Colorado Corn Administrative Committee and a member of the WEco Board of Trustees. Walmart’s row crop statement asks that suppliers implement sustainable practices and source commodities that meet certification standards.

“Those producers who are able to adopt those practices and who can meet those sustainability standards are going to be more successful. It’s going to impact the entire industry and how we do things,” Nicholas says. (Read more from my interview with Nicholas on our blog at wateredco.org.)

It’s happening locally too, in positive ways. Take Restore Colorado’s Zero Foodprint Program, where consumers patronize restaurants that are committed to regenerative farming and send 1% of every purchase back through the program which distributes grants to farmers for healthy soil projects. Other opportunities abound like the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s STAR soil health program or the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s EQIP, which offer funding, resources and even marketing opportunities to help producers try new practices and build resilience into their operations.

It’s exciting to see what on-the-ground water use looks like, and inspiring to watch Colorado farmers and ranchers taking water stewardship to new heights!

—Editor—

Pulse

New Legislation Brings Water Wins

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BY LARRY MORANDI he Colorado General Assembly adjourned its 2022 session in May. Among the water bills that passed, four share a common theme—funding.

A rare confluence of new revenue sources led to strong bipartisan support of the following: Groundwater compact compliance and sustainability Senate Bill 28 creates a Groundwater Compact Compliance and Sustainability Fund to help pay for the retirement of wells and irrigated acreage in the Republican and Rio Grande basins in northeast and south-central Colorado. It appropriates into the fund $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) revenue. The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) will distribute the money based on recommendations from the Republican River Water Conservation District and the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, with approval by the state engineer. These dollars must be obligated by the end of 2024.

The bill seeks to reduce groundwater pumping connected to surface water flows in the Republican River to comply with a compact among Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. It will also help meet aquifer sustainability standards required by state statute and rules in the Rio Grande Basin. To achieve those goals, 25,000 acres of irrigated land must be retired in the Republican Basin, and 40,000 acres in the Rio Grande, by 2029.

If the targets are not met, the state engineer may have no choice but to shut down wells without compensation.

State water plan projects Each year the Colorado General Assembly considers the CWCB’s “projects bill,” to support grants for projects that help implement the state water plan. This year, for the first time, the funding source for

Adobe Stock

The Colorado General Assembly adjourned its session on May 11, 2022, passing a series of water-focused bills.

those grants includes gambling revenue from Proposition DD, which passed in 2019.

Proposition DD legalized sports betting and levied a 10% tax on sports betting proceeds, with most of that revenue going into the Water Plan Implementation Cash Fund.

House Bill 1316 appropriates $8.2 million from the fund for grants to help implement the state water plan; $7.2 million of that amount is from sports betting revenue.

The bill also appropriates $2 million to CWCB from its Construction Fund to help the Republican River Water Conservation District retire irrigated acreage. The money will help the district meet its 2024 interim target of retiring 10,000 acres. This is on top of the funds the district will receive from Senate Bill 28.

Wildfire mitigation and watershed restoration House Bill 1379 takes advantage of ARPA revenue by appropriating $20 million for projects to restore, mitigate and protect watersheds from damage caused by wildfireinduced erosion and flooding.

The bill allocates $3 million to the Healthy Forests and Vibrant Communities Fund to help communities reduce wildfire risks by promoting watershed resilience. It moves $2 million into the Wildfire Mitigation Capacity

Development Fund for wildfire mitigation and fuel reduction projects. And $15 million goes to CWCB to fund watershed restoration and flood mitigation projects, and to help local governments and other entities apply for federal grants related to water and natural resources management.

Turf replacement House Bill 1151 elevates urban turf replacement in importance. The bill requires CWCB to develop a statewide program to provide financial incentives for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial property owners to voluntarily replace nonnative grasses with water-wise landscaping.

It appropriates $2 million in general funds to a newly created Turf Replacement Fund and authorizes local governments, nonprofits and other entities to apply to CWCB for grants to help finance their programs. H This story originally appeared in Fresh Water News, an initiative of Water Education Colorado. Read Fresh Water News online at watereducationcolorado.org.

Larry Morandi was formerly director of State Policy Research with the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, and is a frequent contributor to Fresh Water News.

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Pulse

At Barr Lake, northeast of Denver in Brighton, Colo., agencies and nonprofits are working to reduce the occurrence of toxic algae blooms by encouraging people to switch to lawn fertilizers that do not contain phosphorus.

P-Free Lawns to Combat Algae Blooms

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BY JERD SMITH ead the label on your lawn fertilizer bag and help save your favorite lake or reservoir from algae blooms.

That’s the message from water quality officials and city water utilities this summer.

Algae blooms are becoming more frequent in Colorado lakes and reservoirs as a 20-year mega-drought reduces water levels, 90-plus degree days occur more often, raising water temperatures, and growing numbers of homeowners add phosphorous-laced lawn fertilizers to their grass.

Blue-green algae produces toxins that can harm people and pets, and can also create odors and tastes that degrade water quality.

The problem surfaced at Aurora’s Quincy Reservoir in 2020. Since then the city has been trying new treatment methods, such as installing aeration devices that inject oxygen

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into the water. It has also spent millions on other treatments such as hydrogen peroxide and alum, which kill certain types of toxinproducing algae.

But the biggest issue, by far, says Sherry Scaggiari, an environmental services manager at Aurora Water, is the increasing amount of phosphorous that finds its way from lawns into stormwater, and then into streams and lakes.

“We are trying to get people to use less phosphorous on the grass. You need nitrates, but you don’t need phosphorous,” Scaggiari said.

At Barr Lake State Park near Brighton the problem has triggered several efforts to clean up Barr and Milton Reservoir, which are owned by a private irrigation company.

Fixing the reservoirs is a major undertaking.

Treatments such as alum work best in

water bodies, such as natural lakes, where water supplies aren’t released annually for irrigation. But the Barr-Milton system drains and fills every eight months, roughly.

“We would be adding alum almost continuously,” says Steve Lundt, a scientist who sits on the board of the Barr-Milton Watershed Association, and has been monitoring the watershed for some 20 years.

Aurora, however, hopes it only needs to treat Quincy once every 10 years or so, according to Greg Baker, spokesperson for Aurora Water. But if phosphorous levels continue to rise, it may have to be done more frequently.

Lundt has also been removing some 8,700 carp, or roughly half of the local carp population, from Barr Lake since 2014. The invasive species is known for stirring up the sediment, releasing phosphorous into the water and creating a situation ripe for algae growth.

And Aurora and Barr-Milton are looking at planting along waterways leading to their reservoirs, using plants, such as cattails, that are effective at removing phosphorous from water.

Still, water officials say, the best tool, and perhaps most cost-effective, is to begin slashing the use of phosphorous-based lawn fertilizers.

The Barr-Milton Watershed Association has been leading a campaign, called the P-Free Lawn Fertilizer campaign, to encourage consumers to omit phosphorous from lawn care for several years.

Lundt said some 12 states have already outlawed phosphorous-enriched fertilizers’ use by homeowners unless they can prove their soils are short of phosphorous.

Major fertilizer makers, such as Scott, have removed phosphorous altogether.

“Fertilizer companies are on board, it’s a matter of just changing the culture of how we fertilize our lawns,” Lundt said. H This story originally appeared in Fresh Water News, an initiative of Water Education Colorado. Read Fresh Water News online at watereducationcolorado.org.

Jerd Smith is editor of Fresh Water News.

Jerd Smith

Around the state | BY KENDRA LONGWORTH ARKANSAS RIVER BASIN Residents of Colorado’s Lower Arkansas Valley, who have struggled with contaminated drinking water for more than 20 years, will soon have access to safe water thanks to an agreement signed in March 2022 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Pueblo Board of Water Works, and the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

According to Fresh Water News, the Arkansas Valley Conduit will bring water from Pueblo Reservoir through the city of Pueblo and out to communities on the Eastern Plains, such as Avondale and Boone, by 2024.

GUNNISON RIVER BASIN The National Park Service has decided that the marinas at Blue Mesa Reservoir west of Gunnison, Colo., will stay closed this season.

According to CPR News, federal and state officials plan to keep Blue Mesa closed this year so that it can start to recover from drought conditions and the water released last year that was sent downstream to Lake Powell, dropping the reservoir’s level by 8 feet. The closure is also attributable to the possibility that Lake Powell on the UtahArizona border could need more water, meaning further withdrawals from Blue Mesa, to protect Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to produce hydropower in the future.

YAMPA RIVER BASIN Colorado Parks and Wildlife has instituted an emergency fishing closure on a portion of the Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir outside Steamboat Springs, Colo.

The Steamboat Pilot reports that the closure became effective June 1, to protect fish amid low flows. While the area is catch and release, about 4% of all the fish caught still die. According to officials, this stretch of the Yampa is unlikely to reopen this summer— and would only happen if new precipitation causes the reservoir level to increase and reservoir releases exceed 40 cubic feet per second.

Lake Mead Water Level As of June 27, 2022

1,043.41 feet above sea level 28% full COLORADO RIVER BASIN Construction crews are beginning plans for a diversion route for the Colorado River around Windy Gap Reservoir, outside of Granby, Colo. The project is starting 10 years after the initial plans were finalized.

Aspen Times reports that the decision to move forward came in May after the Natural Resources Conservation Service released a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) drawn from its Environmental Assessment of the Colorado River Connectivity Channel.

NORTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN The State of Nebraska placed a water call on the North Platte River and the North Platte River Basin in April, in accordance with the Nebraska v. Wyoming U.S. Supreme Court Decree. This call could impact water resources in Wyoming and Colorado only through this past spring. Nebraska took the measure to ensure its senior water rights holders are protected.

aquifer sustainability standards required by state statute and rules in the Rio Grande Basin, where 40,000 acres of irrigated land must be retired by 2029.

SAN JUAN / DOLORES RIVER BASIN The Bureau of Reclamation restarted operations of the Paradox Valley Unit (PVU), a salinity control facility located west of Naturita, Colo., near the Utah border. The PVU is used to keep salt from reaching the Dolores River, and ultimately the Colorado River. The facility draws salty groundwater out of the Paradox Valley and injects it into a 16,000-foot-deep well. The PVU was closed in 2019 following an earthquake linked to the injection well. According to a June story from The Daily Sentinel, operations have resumed for six months to conduct injections at a scaled-back level to evaluate the future of the operation following earthquake concerns.

SOUTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN Water Horse Resources LLC, a Fort Collins, Colo., company, wants to build a 338-mile pipeline to bring water from the Green River-fed Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range.

While the project was proposed nearly two decades ago, according to the Greeley Tribune, Water Horse Resources has recently secured a development partner for the project, which is estimated to cost as much as $2.3 billion. It continues to seek additional funding and permits.

RIO GRANDE RIVER BASIN Colorado’s Senate Bill 28 passed and was signed into law in May. The new law will create a Groundwater Compact Compliance and Sustainability Fund to help pay for the purchase and retirement of wells and irrigated acreage in the Republican and Rio Grande basins in northeast and south-central Colorado. It appropriated $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act revenue into that fund, with money to be distributed by the end of 2024. According to Fresh Water News, the bill aims to help meet

Another pipeline project has been in South Platte River Basin news. Renewable Water Resources (RWR), a Denver development firm, proposed the use of COVID-relief funding to help finance a $400 million-plus plan to export farm water from San Luis Valley to Douglas County. Fresh Water News reported that Douglas County officials in May announced they would deny the request to allocate COVID-relief funding for the proposed project. H

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2023 Update

engagecwcb.org

Get Involved: • Share your water conservation success story • Comment on the Water Plan Update - June 30 - September 30 • Commit to action by taking the Water ‘22 Pledge at water22.org • Join a Listening Session: Thriving Watersheds - July 27 Resilient Planning - August 10 Vibrant Communities - September 1 Robust Agriculture - September 28

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Farms of the Future Tomorrow’s farms and ranches will use less water than today’s

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Spring Born, a greenhouse in western Colorado near Silt, you see few, if any, dirty fingernails. Why would you? Hands never touch soil in this 113,400-square-foot greenhouse.

You do see automation, long trays filled with peat sliding on conveyors under computer-programmed seeding devices. Once impregnated, the trays roll into the greenhouse.

Thirty days after sprouting, trays of green and red lettuce, kale, arugula, and mustard greens slide from the greenhouse to be shorn, weighed and sealed in plastic clamshell packages. Hands never touch the produce.

BY ALLEN BEST

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The all-mechanized operations at Spring Born’s large greenhouse near Silt, Colo., produce leafy greens by maximizing the use of water. Spring Born says it needs 95% less water compared to greens grown using Colorado River water a thousand miles downstream in Arizona and California.

“The best lettuce I’ve ever had from a package,” said my companion three days after our tour when we finally broke into the package we’d received. “It just tastes fresh.”

Water savings of this automated agricultural production had motivated our visit. Spring Born says it needs 95% less water compared to leafy greens grown using Colorado River water a thousand miles downstream in Arizona and California. That region supplies more than 90% of the nation’s lettuce.

At Silt, the water comes from two PRECEDING PAGE Trays of green leaf lettuce grow at the Spring Born greenhouse in western Colorado.

From the Hip Photo courtesy of Spring Born 12 • W A T E R E D U C A T I O N C O L O R A D O

shallow wells that plumb the riverine aquifer of the Colorado River, delivering about 20 gallons per minute. The water is then treated before it is piped into the greenhouse. This is agriculture like nowhere else.

Great precautions are taken to avoid contamination and prevent the spread of pathogens. Those entering the greenhouse must don protective equipment such that you might wonder if you had instead wandered into the surgery ward of a hospital. There’s no opportunity for passing birds or critters to leave droppings. As such, there is no need for chlorine washes, which most operations use to disinfect. Those washes also dry out the greenery, shortening the shelf

life and making it less tasty. The Spring Born packages have an advertised shelf life of 23 days.

Spring Born likely constitutes the most capital-intensive agricultural enterprise in Colorado. Total investment in the 250acre operation, which also includes traditional hay farming and cattle production, has been $30 million. The technology and engineering come from Europe, which has 30 such greenhouses. The United States has a handful.

Innovation, such as what is employed at Spring Born, at the intersection of agriculture and water today occurs in Colorado operations both massive and miniscule.

Those innovators range from farmers whose families broke the soil and got into From the Hip Photo courtesy of Spring Born

the business generations ago to those who have been producing food for only a few years. Most are traditionally hands-on.

Spring Born is deliberately hands-off.

This tinkering in the agribusiness that in Colorado generates $47 billion in economic activity has many motivations, but most tie to one reality: The future is one of less water. So how exactly can agriculture use water more judiciously?

The Thirsty Future

A Desert Research Institute study published in the April 2022 Journal of Hydrometeorology concluded that the warming atmosphere is a thirstier one.

Modeling in the study suggests that crops in some parts of Colorado already need

8% to 15% more water than 40 years ago.

Agricultural adaptations to use less water are happening out of necessity.

Colorado has warmed about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 120 years.

Warming has accelerated, with the five hottest summers on record occurring since 2000.

Higher temperatures impact the amount of snowfall and amount of snowpack converted to water runoff. “As the climate warms, crops and forested ecosystems alike use water more rapidly,” says Peter Goble, a research associate at the Colorado Climate Center. “As a result, a higher fraction of our precipitation goes into feeding thirsty soils and a lower fraction into filling our lakes, streams

and reservoirs. Essentially, a warmer future is a drier future.”

Dry, hot years have far outpaced wet years since 2000. Cool years have been nearly absent. This aridification has become particularly evident in southern Colorado. This year was a good example of the drying trend.

Snowpack was around average in the San Juan Mountains, but spring arrived hot and windy. Snow was all but gone by late May, surpassed in its hurried departure only in 2018 and 2002. Farmers dependent on water from the Dolores River, still reeling from last year’s meager supplies, were required to accept lesser supplies yet again as the growing season began this year.

The Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch Enterprise, the most southwesterly agriculture operation in Colorado, expected less than 30% of its regular allocation from McPhee Reservoir, as of June. This was on top of a marginal year in 2021, too. Simon Martinez, general manager of the operation, said just 15 of the 110 center pivots had crops under cultivation in early June. Employment was cut in half, and the 650 cow-calf operation had been slimmed to 570.

Aridification best describes the drying underway in southwestern Colorado. April 1 snow-water equivalent, or the amount of water contained by the snow, in the San Juans has averaged 9.7 inches since 2000, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the prior 60 years it was 12.3 inches.

The warming climate is not alone in spurring adaptations and causing worries. In many river basins, irrigators must also worry about delivery of water to downstream states specified by interstate compacts.

Groundwater declines interlace with struggles to meet compact deliveries. The 2019 Technical Update to the Colorado Water Plan projects that 6% to 7% of irrigated acres supplied by groundwater in the state will be lost due to aquifer sustainability issues, primarily in the Arkansas, Republican and Rio Grande basins.

Declines of the Ogallala and other aquifers of the High Plains have been well documented. Consider output of the wells supplying Colorado State University’s Plainsman Research Center H E A DWAT E R S S U M M E R 2 0 2 2

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at Walsh. Arriving there in 1989, Kevin Larson, the superintendent, had one well that produced 250 gallons per minute. Now it produces so little, 18 to 19 gallons per minute, that no attempt is made to pump it. Production from the two other wells at the station has also dropped precipitously.

“Our wells are dropping, so we need to be more cautious with our water use,” says Larson.

Water conservation districts formed in the last 20 years are paying farmers to decrease pumping and planting to save the water that remains in the aquifers, comply with compacts, and transition to less water use.

Directors of the Republican River Water Conservation District, in northeastern Colorado, where producers rely on Ogallala aquifer water, were confident and successful in incentivizing the voluntary retirement of 4,000 acres by June 2020. They are confident of inducing retirement of 10,000 acres in the area between Wray and Burlington before 2025. The aquifer there has been falling 8 inches a year. They’re less sure of achieving the 25,000 acres that compact compliance will require by 2029.

Rio Grande Water Conservation District directors in south-central Colorado have an even greater lift. They must figure out how to retire 40,000 irrigated acres by 2029. They’re at 13,000.

High commodity prices have

discouraged farmer participation. The pot of local, state and federal money hasn’t been sufficient to fund high enough incentives to compete with commodity pricing. A bill, SB22-028, Groundwater Compact Compliance Fund, which passed in the Colorado Legislature in May, will allocate $60 million to both the Republican and Rio Grande basins to help them comply with interstate river compacts by reducing the acreage outlined above. The law says that if voluntary reductions cannot be attained, Colorado may resort to mandatory reductions in groundwater extraction.

Out of the Age of Water Development

Even if the Republican River Water Conservation District’s 2029 deadline is met, the basin’s long-term outcome remains uncertain, says Rod Lenz, president of the district’s board of directors. Lenz’s family migrated from Weld County to the Republican River Basin in 1974. It was a boom time, not unlike Colorado’s gold- and silver-mining era, in this case producing wealth by mining the Ogallala using the new technology of center-pivot sprinklers.

Taking the long, big picture view, Colorado spent most of its first 100 to 150 years as a state developing its water resources.

Colorado’s farmers first settled in places where water was most plentiful, along its creeks and rivers. Among the

last places to see the plow was land along the Kansas and Nebraska borders.

Dryland farming, fed only by rain, came first, then gasoline-powered pumps allowed limited pumping of water from the underlying aquifers.

Center-pivot sprinklers dramatically expanded the geography available for farming. Don Brown remembers well the transformation. On the Brown family farm, his father commissioned what may have been the first circular sprinkler in Yuma County to use the Ogallala aquifer.

Brown, a former agriculture commissioner for Colorado, says that 425-foot well was drilled in 1962, when he was a boy. It cost $10,970—a “fortune back then,” says Brown. The center-pivot sprinkler cost was in the same price range, another fortune. Brown’s father was so concerned whether the technology was right that he summoned the inventor to inspect it. Frank Zybach had invented the technology in 1940 while farming at Strasburg, east of Denver.

Was it worth it? The jury was soon in.

“One season, 150 days,” says Brown. “It worked!”

Irrigation was available for corn’s full growing season. With that, farmers had a new model for irrigation in Yuma County, one independent of rainfall and flood irrigation.

Other center-pivot sprinklers soon followed, expanding the amount of land in the rolling hills of the Republican River Basin available for irrigation. In turn, the water expanded the yields. Dryland corn might yield 50 or 60 bushels per acre.

Irrigation boosts yields to 300 bushels.

Irrigation vaulted Yuma County into one of the nation’s top-producing agricultural counties, where it remains.

That phase of irrigated agriculture, the development of new water sources, has now almost entirely ended. The bucket is virtually empty. The new era poses an inverse challenge: sustaining agriculture with less water.

From Sprinklers to Crop Selection

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise’s cattle herd was slimmed by more than 12% this year, after a series of drought years.

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Even as center-pivot sprinklers are removed in the Republican River Basin and San Luis Valley, they are going up in the Grand Valley of western Colorado. There, instead of drafting groundwater, they are Dean Krakel

Jason Lorenz with Agro Engineering talks about irrigation, soil moisture and chemistry during a soil workshop for students in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.

distributing Colorado River water.

The geography of the valley from Palisade to Fruita and Loma does not immediately favor center pivots. They work best as a pie within a square, a full 40 or 160 acres. Parcels in the Grand Valley tend to be more rectangular. That means a pivot can arc maybe three-quarters of a circle.

That slows the payoff on investment.

Why the pivot, so to speak, on pivots?

Perry Cabot, a water resource specialist with Colorado State University’s Western Colorado Research Center near Fruita, sees two, sometimes overlapping, motivations. (Cabot also serves on the Water Education Colorado Board of Trustees.)

The greater motivation is the desire to save labor. That itself is good, he says, because the investment reflects an intention to continue farming. “People are obviously doing it for the long haul,” he says.

The other motivation appears to be water related. “The feedback I get is, to Courtesy of AgroEngineering

paraphrase the farmers, at some point in the future we are going to have less water to farm with and so we must prepare for that,” Cabot says.

Incremental improvements have improved efficiency. Experiments at the CSU research center in Walsh have shown conclusively the advantage of long-drop nozzles that spray the water just a couple feet off the ground, reducing evaporation.

Technology can help perfect a producer’s irrigation set up. Consider work in the San Luis Valley by Agro Engineering, crop consultants who seek to assist growers in producing maximum value with minimum water application. Potatoes, the valley’s largest cash crop, thrive in warm, but not hot, days and cool nights.

They need 16 to 18 inches of water per year, of which 13 to 15 inches comes from irrigation. This includes two inches applied during planting, to moisten soils sufficiently for germination. They do not do well with too much water, explains

Jason Lorenz, an agricultural engineer who is a partner in the firm. That, and the need to align use with legal requirements, gives growers compelling reason to closely monitor water.

To evenly distribute water, Agro Engineering first checks sprinkler vents, to be sure they are working properly. “You won’t get any more yield by over-applying water,” Lorenz observes.

Later, the company uses aerial surveys conducted from airplanes to analyze whether the desired uniformity is being achieved. The latest advancement, multispectral aerial photography, enables the detection of green, red and near-infrared light levels. These images indicate the amount of vegetative biomass, vegetative vigor, and the greenness of the leaves.

Variations show where crops are healthier and where there are problems, including insects and diseases, water quality, or soil chemistry problems.

Any discussion of water and agriculture in Colorado must include a focus on corn.

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In 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost 1.4 million acres in the state were devoted to corn, with well more than half of that irrigated.

Corn is also thirsty. So far, efforts to produce corn with less water have come up short, says Colorao State University water resources specialist Joel Schneekloth. But if corn still needs the same amount of water, researchers have succeeded in producing greater yields.

How about alternatives to corn, especially in those areas drafting the Ogallala and other aquifers?

Sunflowers, used to make cooking oil but also for confections, came on strong, but acreage shrank from 132,000 acres to 59,000 acres statewide between 2010 and 2019. For farmers, corn pays far better.

Quinoa may be possible. It consumes less water. But no evidence has emerged that it’s viable in eastern Colorado. The demand is small. Demand also remains small for black-eyed peas, which a bean processing facility in Sterling accepts along with pinto, navy and other beans.

“We can find low-water crops, but they just don’t have huge markets,” explains Schneekloth who conducts studies for the Republican and South Platte basins at a research station in Akron. There has to be enough production to justify processing facilities, he said. One such processing facility proximate to the Ogallala aquifer in Colorado—it was in

Goodland, Kan.—closed because it didn’t have enough business.

Nearly all of the corn in Colorado is grown to feed livestock. What if, instead of eating beef or pork, we ate plant-based substitutes? The shift, says Schneekloth, would save water. It takes seven pounds of forage and grain to produce one pound of meat. For a meat substitute it’s closer to one for one. But that tradeoff isn’t that simple in most places. Much of the cattle raised in Colorado start on rangeland, feeding off of unirrigated forage, which is not suitable for crop production.

As for corn, growers are doing their part to make production more sustainable. Between 1980 and 2015 corn farmers reduced soil loss by 58% per acre, improved irrigation efficiency by 46% per bushel, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 31% per bushel, according to the National Corn Growers Association, citing data from Field to Market.

Besides, Schneekloth says he has a hard time imagining a mass migration to meat substitutes in the near future.

Plant-based substitutes cost far more and the product, to many people, remains unsatisfactory. “Mass migration will be a hard one to sell,” he says. “Maybe eventually, but it won’t happen for a long time, I don’t think.”

Financial reports confirm Schneekloth’s skepticism. Plant-based meat remains a morsel of the market. A study by

Derek Heckman, who farms near Lamar in eastern Colorado, is implementing various soil health practices to build the organic matter of his soil, improve water retention, and stretch limited water supplies farther.

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the University of Kentucky researchers published in a journal, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, found that U.S. beef sales topped $110 billion in 2021 compared to $1.5 billion for plant-based alternatives. Meat alternatives mostly displaced chicken and fish, not beef or pork. The Financial Times reported that U.S. sales of plant-based meat overall declined 0.5% in 2021 after a 46% increase in 2020.

Healthier Soils

If we continue to grow corn to feed livestock, can we work at the intersection of soil and water? Soil health has emerged as a lively new frontier of research and practice and the integration of livestock and crop production is one of its tenets—manure adds nutrients to the soil and builds organic matter, improving soil health.

Soil, unlike dirt, is alive. It’s full of organisms, necessary for growing plants.

Wiggling worms demonstrate fecund soil, but most networking occurs on the microscopic level. This organic matter is rich with fungi and bacteria. Iowa’s rich soils have organic content of up to 9%.

The native soils of Colorado’s Eastern Plains might have originally had 5%. The farms of southeastern Colorado now have 1% to 3%.

Derek Heckman is on a quest to boost the organic matter of his soil to 5% or even higher. It matters because water matters entirely on the 500 acres he farms in southeastern Colorado, just west of Lamar.

“Water is the limiting factor for our farms a majority of the time,” he explains. “We are never able to put on enough water.”

Heckman’s water comes from the Fort Lyon Canal, which takes out from the Arkansas River near La Junta and meanders 100 miles just beyond Lamar. His farm is about halfway along the canal’s journey.

Corn is the end game for Heckman, and corn needs 21 inches of water. In a good year, he says, his land can get 25 to 30 runs from the ditch. One run on the 200acre farm should be able to irrigate 1.2 inches across 90 acres using a pivot. Last year he got 16 runs. This year? As of early May, Heckman was expecting no more than 10 runs.

Allen Best

Keeping Soil Healthy The term regenerative agriculture has become a buzzword in news and policy lately, but that’s because the ideas behind it can make a difference. Regenerative agriculture describes practices that promote soil health by restoring soil’s organic carbon. Soil health, as defined by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is “the continued capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans.”

Soil health typically focuses on topsoil, the uppermost layer of soil where 95% of the world’s food is grown. As soil health

declines, food production, nutrient density and the soil’s water-holding capacity also decline—degraded soil makes it more difficult and expensive to grow food. A 2022 study in the journal Earth’s Future found that over the past 160 years, since Euro-American settlement, fields in the Midwest have lost an average of 2 millimeters of topsoil per year, primarily due to plowing.

There are five principles of soil health, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the NRCS:

The Five Principles of Soil Health

Soil Armor

Keeping bare soil covered with live plants, mulch or crop residue, which reduces evaporation to maintain soil moisture, protects the soil surface allowing for increased water infiltration, moderates soil temperature, and suppresses weed growth.

Livestock Integration

Minimize Soil Disturbance

By minimizing tillage, overgrazing and over-application of nutrients and pesticides, producers can rebuild the pore spaces between soils. This improves water infiltration and means less ponding of water and less erosion, improving water quality and soil organic matter.

Plant Diversity

Crop rotations increase biodiversity, benefit the soil food web and improve rainfall infiltration and nutrient cycling. In rotations, crops with different root systems diversify and break up the soil; some are legumes with nitrogen fixing capabilities while others aren’t.

Continual Live Plant/Root Plant cover crops to continuously keep a root in the ground, slow erosion, control pests, improve soil infiltration, and harvest CO2 to nourish the soil food web.

Continual plantings catch and release nutrients, improving water quality and managing salinity.

Integrating crop and livestock production so that they support each other allows for recycling nutrients from livestock waste back to croplands, reducing livestock waste associated with confinement, and improves soil organic matter and fertility as well as water quality.

OrganicImproved matter soil affects these margins to study architecture ended up get- advantagesone them. The is health results not just in environmental benefits, but alsobut results in economic and of healthier, morescientific nutritiousliterature food sharpened in the Arkansas Valley by rising ting a degree in horticulture. He and his becoming robust on the benefits of what A 2021 study from the Soil Health Institute, looking In 2016, The Nature Conservancy’s report reThink Reducing 344 million pounds of nutrient loss to the temperatures citiespractices wife is generically called “conservation tillage.” at 100 and farmscompetition that implementedfrom soil health Soil returned set the goal to thatsoutheastern a majority of U.S. Colorado farms would environment across nine states (Colorado was not one of them) managed forhe soilmight health by 2025.be Thedescribed report for limited supplies of water.

Colorado inbe 2017.

Now best Irrigated corn fields of eastern Colorafound that farmers implementing soil health estimates that if that goal was met, it would result A 2022 study published in PeerJ suggests that Springs tomanagement the northsystems has begun using its as an architect of the subterranean.

His do can require 10% less irrigation water reported an average $24/acre in: regenerative practices can enhance the nutrient allocated reduction water from practice creating highways tillage and residue in thethe cost river, to growHeckman corn and $17/acre Creating involves 3.6 million acre-feet of available waterin the densitydepending and fatty acid upon profile of produce, crops and manreduction in theless costwater to growfor soybeans, capacity cropland soilsto infiltrate. His work meats. agement practices, according to a 2020 notes, which means him while the soil, waysin for water net farm income increarsed by an average of Mitigating 25 million metric tons of greenhouse gas and other$52/acre users for lower on the ditch. is emissions regenerative agriculture. paper published by Schneekloth and othcorn and $45/acre for soybeans.

“The more organic matter there is, the In explaining this, Heckman shies ers. Another paper, this one by Emmanuel more the moisture-holding capacity of away from the word sustainable. It’s too Deleon and other researchers from CSU’s the soil,” he explains. This is particularly limiting, he says. “I don’t want to just Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, important as water supplies dwindle sustain what I’m doing. Regenerative is similarly found that “conservation tillage during the hot days of summer. bringing the soil back to life.” offers promise for the restoration of soil “Let’s say we have 105 degrees every Growing corn in the traditional way of quality in furrow-irrigated systems of the day for two weeks,” says Heckman. “Orthe late 20th century involved plowing High Plains region in Colorado.” ganic content of your soil of 3% might alfields before planting. The working of the Louise Comas, a plant physiologist at low you to go four additional days without field might involve five passes by a tracCSU’s Water Management Systems Reirrigation and without having potential tor, compacting the soil and reducing its search Center, gets excited when talking yield loss or, even worse, crops loss.” porosity. The plows disrupt microbial life. about how natural processes can be used Heckman, 31, was among a graduating For several decades, farmers and scienin soils to make nutrients available to class of 18 from McClave High School. tists have been exploring the benefits of plants through microbial partners. Water His future, he thought, was living in a less intrusive tilling of the soil. Beginning is an element of this. city. He went off to Iowa State University about 20 years ago, Heckman’s father was “If you use a little less water the plants Adobe Stock image and illustrations

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will create a bigger root system, which could allow plants to increase interactions with microbials,” she explains.

The goal is figuring out the sweet spot, defined by restricting water enough to promote more extensive root growth but not so much as to hinder plant productivity and decrease microbial biomass.

Heckman has been doing his own experiments, trying to find the best balance of cover crops, minimal tilling, and the right mix of chemicals.

To improve the organic matter in his soil, Heckman plants cover crops of cereal rye and legumes after the autumn harvest. This puts roots down, part of what Heckman describes as an attempt to create subterranean channels for water infiltration and for sunshine. It can also provide marginal food for cattle allowed to feed in the corn fields before the spring planting.

Cover crops serve several purposes but are not the end goal. Corn, when it’s planted, can tolerate little competition. So he uses herbicides to kill the cover crops.

He is a farmer of organic matter, but he is not an organic farmer. Artificial fertilizer and pesticides are tools, he says, to be used as sparingly as possible. When the

corn has emerged and can survive competition, he plants cover crops again, this time mixes of cereal rye, red clover, cow peas, radish, flax and buckwheat. Some of those cover crops actually discourage insects and diseases damaging to the corn.

After returning to the farm, Heckman continued the journey begun by his father 20 years before. He set out to do more and became one of several dozen farms in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado getting funding through The Farms Project. The Colorado Conservation Tillage Association funnels federal funding to Colorado participants, of which Heckman is the only irrigator. The grant has given him the opportunity to experiment.

“A lot of guys are comfortable with what grandpa did and what dad did, and that’s what they do,” he says. “I want to see changes in our operation.”

Summing up, he ticks off what he understands to be core tenants of regenerative agriculture: 1) minimum tillage, 2) leaving roots in the soil as long as possible, 3) integration of livestock into the fields, 4) augmenting the soil by keeping residue on top; and 5) diversifying the plants. It might not be possible to do all five, but that’s the goal.

Improved soil health results not just in environmental benefits, but also in economic advantages and healthier, more nutritious food • A 2021 study from the Soil Health Institute, looking at 100 farms that implemented soil health practices across nine states (Colorado was not one of them) found that farmers implementing soil health management systems reported an average $24/acre reduction in the cost to grow corn and $17/acre reduction in the cost to grow soybeans, while the net farm income increased by an average of $52/acre for corn and $45/acre for soybeans.

• In 2016, The Nature Conservancy’s report reThink Soil set the goal that a majority of U.S. farms would be managed for soil health by 2025. The report estimates that if that goal was met, it would result in: • Creating 3.6 million acre-feet of available water capacity in cropland soils • Mitigating 25 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions • Reducing 344 million pounds of nutrient loss to the environment • A 2022 study published in PeerJ suggests that regenerative practices can enhance the nutrient density and fatty acid profile of produce, crops and meats.

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Those same principles are echoed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s soil health program. The program was borne of ideas articulated by a group of more than 100 farmers, researchers, agencies and grower groups. The STAR (Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources) program assigns points for soil health practices. Farmers and ranchers rate themselves.

“This is a great way for farmers to show what they’re doing and to be proud of the process,” says Cindy Lair, conservation program manager for the agency.

A companion program, STAR Plus, expands the same concept through conservation districts and similar entities.

More than 130 individual producers have signed up through STAR Plus.

Regenerative agriculture is not just a topic in rural Colorado in the land of big and even bigger farms. It’s also the central focus of Amanda Weaver’s 13-acre farm called Five Fridges, sandwiched between multi-family housing developments in the Denver metro area’s Wheat Ridge. An economic geographer by training, she now teaches classes about agriculture at the University of Colorado-Denver and, since 2011, farms.

On Five Fridges, Weaver has partners who grow vegetables for local consumption while she raises chickens and operates a goat dairy. Animals are a key component of her operation, which she readily admits is essentially a laboratory for her thinking about regenerative agriculture. The animals add nutrients to the soil; she even sells chicken and goat manure to nearby growers who don’t have the benefit of livestock. As in southeastern Colorado, she emphasizes balance. One of those balances has to do with carrying capacity. One year’s maximum production can come at the expense of long-term benefits. Weaver’s farmland is protected in perpetuity through a conservation easement, managed by Colorado Open Lands, so the long-term benefits and effects of her operation make a difference. In this way, and perhaps more, Weaver and Heckman see agriculture in much the same way. Farming must be seen as a multi-year proposition.

On the Western Slope, soil health restoration is being tested in an experiment on sagebrush-dominated rangelands

Amanda Weaver with Five Fridges Farm, in the Denver metro area’s Wheat Ridge, leads community members who are walking her goats to a nearby park where they can graze and get rid of noxious weeds. Weaver implements regenerative practices on her farm where she raises goats and chickens.

south of Montrose. Ken Holsinger, an ecologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, says the intent is to restore diversity to the lands and improve the water-holding capacity of the soil.

Holsinger says the federal land was likely deteriorated by improper livestock grazing, particularly prior to adoption of the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934, but may well have continued until the 1970s prior to implementing modern grazing practices.

This experiment consists of a pair of one-acre plots that have lost their topsoil and have become dominated by sagebrush and invasive vegetation. Such lands produce 200 to 300 pounds of forage per acre but should be producing 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre of native grasses.

The soil will be amended with nutrients to restart the carbon cycle. Afterward, 50% of the sagebrush will be removed.

“We are looking at restarting the carbon cycle and ultimately holding more water in the soil profile,”says Holsinger.

“It’s all about rebuilding the diversity in the soil and plant forms.”

One way this enhanced water-holding capacity of restored soils will matter is by preventing the monsoonal rains that western Colorado typically gets in Kathryn Scott/The Denver Post via Getty Images

summer from washing soil into creeks and rivers, muddying the water. If the experiment proves successful, then the task will be to cost-effectively scale it up, ideally to the watershed level.

Holsinger hopes the concepts, if proven effective and cost effective at scale, can be employed across other deteriorated rangelands in Colorado.

The Future

Back in Silt, at the site of Spring Born, Charles Barr, the company’s owner, got serious about building a greenhouse in 2019. He liked the idea of innovating in agriculture. “I liked the idea of continuous production, I liked the idea of resource conservation, and I liked the idea of moving production closer to consumption.”

The technology is not hydroponic.

Sunlight and soil remain critical inputs, along with water. The same technology can be used to grow broccoli, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables—or, for that matter, hay.

Innovation can be challenging, though.

Barr’s first major challenge was getting local approval. Barr wanted to build the greenhouse at a geothermal site, but his chosen county put him off. The U.S.

Department of Agriculture, his financier, promised to loan money for something similar, as long as it was in Colorado.

Garfield County, where Silt is located, was one of three counties in Colorado that said yes, he’d get easy approval.

Operations began in August 2021.

In far western Colorado, Richard and Mandy Massey have also been innovating. After building a new metal-sided barn near Gateway, southwest of Grand Junction, they have been growing wheat and barley inside in a hydroponic operation as a supplement for their cattle.

Their investment was triggered by the drought of 2018. They still need water, but less of it.

Together, their stories speak to the need for innovation. “That will be the model going forward for all of these agricultural areas,” says Barr. “They have to find new sources of revenue, they have to find new ways of doing business, and they have to find new ways to conserve water.” H Allen Best grew up in eastern Colorado, where both sets of grandparents were farmers. Best writes about the energy transition in Colorado and beyond at BigPivots.com.

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Cultivating Cleaner Water

Irrigation adaptations are leaving surface and groundwater cleaner. It’s good for the environment, downstream water users, crops, and producers’ bottom line.

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By Kelly Bastone

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n the edge of Larry Lempka’s farmland, where it slopes down to the Little Thompson River in northern Colorado, you stand in a miniature tallgrass prairie.

Orchardgrass, brome grass and fescue sway in the wind as if petted by an invisible hand, their broad blades reflecting the sunlight as they bend.

This mini-prairie only spans 100 to 300 feet from the water’s edge before it gives way to rows of forage sorghum or sunflowers, corn or potatoes, depending on Lempka’s rotation. But Lempka suspected that the grasses he planted protected the river from irrigation runoff generated by his fields and those of his neighbors, since his plot stands between theirs and the Little Thompson River. In 2018, he asked the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University to measure the grasses’ effect.

“I’m scientific,” explains Lempka, who’s worked these lands near Berthoud for 51 years. He knew the grasses would prevent erosion, but he wasn’t so sure about their effectiveness at removing silt and nutrients from the irrigation runoff that returned to the river. “How much difference is there?

What’s our impact?” Lempka wondered.

Erik Wardle, manager of CSU’s Agricultural Water Quality Program, worked with Lempka to install water-monitoring units located at the crops’ border with the grasses near the river’s edge. The monitoring

stations let researchers compare the water’s quality before it reaches the grass strip and again before it enters the Little Thompson.

Results vary by season, but overall, Wardle summarizes, the mini-prairie “filter strip” proved to be extremely effective at removing sediment and achieved significant reductions to total phosphorus levels reaching the river.

Too much phosphorus or other nutrients can cause algae blooms, reducing water-oxygen levels and harming fish and aquatic life. Such blooms can also produce toxins poisonous to animals and humans.

Some mysteries remain to be solved—for example, E. coli, a known impairment along

Larry Lempka irrigates in northern Colorado, near Berthoud, where he’s working with researchers at Colorado State University to reduce water quality impairment and measure the impact of protective practices.

this stretch of the Little Thompson, fluctuates according to factors that aren’t currently well understood—but the data suggests that scaling up the grass-strip design along more farmlands within the Little Thompson and South Platte watersheds could have significant benefits to water quality by limiting the quantities of silt and nutrients that dump into the rivers. That evidence could embolden entities such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a federal office that funds environmental improvement projects on private land, to invest in grass filter strip installations beyond Lempka’s half-mile of river frontage. The

potential excites Wardle. “What would the impact be if 10 farms, or 50 farms employed these filter strips along the river?”

Across Colorado, surface waters and underground water sources contain various contaminants that can result in what’s known as water quality impairments, where those sources don’t meet water quality standards. Some impairments are driven by agricultural irrigation and runoff. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers, including compost and manure, have the potential to run into streams and leach into groundwater. The same is true of herbicides and pesticides. Other regions experience

Christi Bode Skeie courtesy of Colorado’s Water Quality Control Division Nonpoint Source Program

elevated levels of salt and selenium in their fields, rivers and streams. Often, geology is to blame: Many millions of years ago, inland seas covered much of what is now Colorado, depositing limestone, shale and sandstone. Today, as irrigation water and natural flows filter through different formations, including the Mancos shale that underlies much of Colorado, the water unlocks selenium and uranium. When that water is applied it can broadcast those elements across fields, harming soils and plants, and wash them back into streams and groundwater—even reaching drinking water sources.

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Lempka Family Farm is nestled beside the Little Thompson River. To effectively intercept irrigation runoff and remove sediment and nutrients before they enter the river, Larry Lempka installed a vegetative filter strip abutting the river.

In other cases, water quality begins to degrade with use in urban areas from sources including wastewater, stormwater and landscape runoff. By the time that water has been used, reused and flows downstream to agricultural operations, it may be carrying higher loads of nutrients and pollutants.

EPA studies conducted nationwide confirm that agricultural runoff is the leading source of pollutants in surveyed rivers and lakes. Those pollutants can pose unfortunate consequences for human health and economies. Removal and regulation of these nonpoint source pollutants aren’t great options: It’s whoppingly expensive to build wastewater treatment plants capable of removing salt, uranium and other contaminants from drinking water, and nearly impossible to measure and regulate agricultural runoff. Each farm applies different levels of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water at different times

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to different types of soil and various crops— all factors that affect the way pollutants leave a field. Plus runoff from fields occurs in various places, and groundwater leaching is traceable only through research—it would be a challenge to accurately measure the rate of pollutants leaving agricultural systems.

High levels of salinity can inhibit crop production. And extended exposure to high concentrations of selenium, uranium and nitrate cause a variety of human health issues.

While applied irrigation water isn’t solely to blame, it can increase the rate in which naturally occurring elements are released and contaminate water.

Studies conducted over the past three decades have shed light on these ecological processes and are helping managers target the irrigation adaptations likely to yield the greatest benefit to water quality. Agricultural producers are doing their part: They’re

turning out in high numbers to attend courses and learn strategies for improving water quality, as well as efficiency—the two can be correlated. And many farmers are implementing best management practices (BMPs) that are already achieving quantifiable gains. One example: In June 2021, the Lower Gunnison River was removed from the state’s impaired waters list after measurable improvement in its levels of dissolved selenium, which can become toxic for natural ecosystems and aquatic and human life in high concentrations.

Some growers are motivated by a desire to stave off regulation, and many are chasing the cost savings that can result from efficient irrigation practices. For example, when fertilizers stay in the ground rather than getting flushed into waterways, farmers enjoy higher yields while spending less on those inputs. Colorado’s health department

Christi Bode Skeie courtesy of Colorado’s Water Quality Control Division Nonpoint Source Program

has also been supporting water quality improvement projects that are typically driven by agriculture. “It’s an interesting time right now, because ag really wants to be involved in the conversation about water quality,” says Wardle. “We’re seeing a really positive collaboration between ag, researchers and the regulatory community.”

Challenges With Applied Water

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olorado growers don’t get a lot of natural rainfall: Totals vary from 7 inches of annual precipitation in the San Luis Valley to 15 inches in Weld County to 22 inches in Steamboat Springs, and higher at higher elevations where few crops are grown.

Thus supplemental irrigation is required for commercial production of all but the most drought-tolerant crops, such as beans and wheat, which can be dry-farmed. But dryland farming works best in areas that receive higher amounts of rainfall and produces lower yields that result in less income for farmers. Strategies for watering crops date back to the state’s pioneer era.

Settlers built ditches and canals that channel water from rivers to fields, using headgates or siphon tubes to send flows across open fields or into trenches in the soil between rows of crops. Such low-tech “flood irrigation” methods are affordable to build and operate, thus they still represent about 43% to 49% of Colorado’s irrigation designs, estimates Wardle. But flood irrigation also carries away topsoil, can move sediment into streams, and increases the likelihood that irrigation water will pick up naturally occurring elements such as uranium or selenium.

Over time, all methods of water application—including the pressurized sprinklers that have replaced flood irrigation on many farms—alter the way that minerals and nutrients pass through the soil and enter surface and groundwater. Applied water can load the ground with salts that may compromise productivity and water quality. Irrigation can also flush phosphorus, nitrogen and other fertilizers into streams and groundwater, leading to what’s known as “nutrient pollution,” which can stimulate algae growth and in some cases lead to harmful algae blooms which can be toxic to fish, animals and humans. And when

applied water hits the selenium-rich layer of cretaceous shale that underlies much of Colorado, it absorbs that mineral and transports it into water bodies, where it kills or deforms the larvae of aquatic animals. Uranium is another naturally occurring element that weathers out of Colorado’s marine shales. Evapotranspiration associated with irrigation and shallow reservoirs increases the uranium concentration of river water, according to 2016 research presented at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Denver. At the same time, nitrates in water, the result of nitrogen fertilizers, may trigger uranium to degrade at a higher rate, becoming more soluble so that it contaminates groundwater. High concentrations of uranium in drinking water can cause cancer and kidney failure.

“Any activities that apply water to the landscape can impair surface and ground water,” explains Dave Kanzer, director of science and interstate matters for the Colorado River District. Such activities include residential septic systems and ornamental ponds. But irrigation is the state’s largest water use and according to computer models created by the selenium management program in the Lower Gunnison River Basin, irrigation is primarily responsible for releasing compounds such as selenium and uranium from soil to water. Therefore, improving approaches to irrigation can help clean up Colorado’s water.

Better water quality also requires the long view, says Kanzer, noting that the Lower Gunnison Basin effort involved a dedicated, core group that met on a monthly basis for nearly 15 years. Though funding sources for irrigation-related water quality projects can be complicated to coordinate, dollars are relatively available from entities such as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and NRCS, which have dedicated significant totals to battling salinity, which inhibits agricultural production and raises costs for water treatment plants, and selenium. Together, these entities have been contributing about $15-20 million annually since 2015 to projects on the Lower Gunnison that reduce pollution from salts and selenium. The money converted miles of open ditches to enclosed pipes and replaced flood irrigation systems with sprinklers across approximately 76,000 acres. All

together, the widespread transformation to enclosed ditches and sprinkler systems brought the Lower Gunnison back into acceptable levels of selenium.

Most importantly, says Kanzer, “You’ve got to be committed to the science.” His project conducted an extensive GIS analysis of irrigation networks and compared that map against ones charting geologies with the highest potential for selenium mobilization. This overlay, along with chemical transport modeling, helped the selenium management team decide which irrigation upgrades—such as piping open ditches and converting from flood to sprinkler irrigation—would deliver the greatest benefit to water quality. Says Kanzer, “The science led us.”

Combatting Nutrient Pollution Through Ditch Seepage

D

r. Timothy Gates, Colorado State University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been studying irrigation’s impact on water quality for more than 30 years, which is “longer than I’d like to admit,” he chuckles. Like Kanzer, he also views water quality improvement as a long game. “You can’t just go out there and effect change in a week or two,” he explains. Using models to understand how excess applied irrigation water migrates through the ecosystem and transports dissolved minerals, nutrients and other solutes, he’s seen that the water can take a few months to return to surface and groundwater resources—or even decades. Because of that lag, “It may take many years before you can see marked changes in water quality,” says Gates.

Much of his research was conducted along the Arkansas River, particularly the lower part of the river basin from Pueblo, Colo., to the border with Kansas. Originally, he studied the problem of salinity in those irrigated lands, but over the years, Gates and a team of dozens of CSU faculty, staff and students expanded the focus to address additional irrigation-induced water quality problems, such as waterborne selenium, uranium, nitrate and phosphate. Computational models developed by the CSU team allowed them to play imaginary “what if ” games with various irrigation scenarios.

Modeling generally confirmed the theory

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that too much applied water—more than is actually used by the crop—flushes fertilizer beyond the reach of plants’ roots, which wastes farmers’ money and loads groundwater with nutrients. Models also illustrated how this water containing nutrients liberates salts, selenium and uranium from Colorado’s shale layers and transports it into waterways.

But modeling also revealed a surprise: The greatest impairment to water quality in the aquifer and streams caused by agricultural irrigation came from seepage along the canals that divert water from rivers to fields. In the Arkansas Basin, and in many locations around the world, earthen canals transport water over vast tracts of lands that can span hundreds of thousands of acres. On average, says Gates, 25% to 30% of the water that’s diverted at the headgate never reaches the intended field to be used for irrigation because it’s lost to leakage along the way. Computational models projected significant reductions to pollutants in groundwater and rivers should that seepage be reduced, possibly by lining canals with concrete. Lining projects, however, cost many millions of dollars to improve just a few miles of canal.

Starting in 2006, Gates participated in a collaboration involving Reclamation and the Desert Research Institute that evaluated the possibility of treating canals using a polymer that binds with sediments and seals the channel. Over the past 15 years, lab studies and in-field pilot projects on canals along the Arkansas River and other locations have concluded that these polymers reduce seepage by as much as 80% and cost just 5% of the typical expense for concrete or plastic linings. That equates to significant gains in water quality: Modeling studies indicate that in the Arkansas River Basin sealing canals with polymers would reduce selenium and nitrate concentrations in the groundwater aquifer by about 18% and 11%, respectively, and would reduce selenium concentrations in the Arkansas River by up to 20%.

One tradeoff is the need to reapply polymer sealants every growing season, at minimum, whereas traditional concrete-lined or piped ditches should last at least 10 years, according to the NRCS, often much longer. Another downside is the polymer’s

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Colorado State University researchers conduct a seepage measurement test to check how much water is seeping from the Catlin Canal in eastern Colorado.

petrochemical makeup (one petrochemical polymer breaks down into compounds that can become carcinogenic in high concentrations). However, Gates, along with CSU Professor Joseph Scalia and PhD student Rehman Lund, is already testing a bio-based alternative made of xanthan gum, a common food additive. In 2021, a pilot project on the Larimer and Weld Canal near Fort Collins demonstrated that the biodegradable xanthan gum polymer was very effective at reducing seepage. The CSU team will repeat the test project on the same canal this year.

“We’re still exploring how effective [the xanthan gum] is, what factors influence that efficacy, and the best methods for applying it,” says Gates. But he’s optimistic about the technique’s potential for improving water quality in Colorado and beyond. “It’s a massive problem involving millions of miles of earthen canals worldwide,” says Gates.

Polymer canal linings represent an economically viable upgrade, Gates concludes.

Managing For Quality

L

ining all of Colorado’s earthen canals may be a long-shot remedy for water that’s impaired by irrigation, but it’s not the only strategy capable of improving the purity of our streams and aquifers. An array of best management practices (BMPs) are proving to make measurable gains in water quality—but farmers find some more enticing than others.

“If I were giving away sprinklers, I’d have a line down the street with farmers that

want to sign up,” says Jack Goble, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, which provides support to farmers along a stretch of river that is battling elevated salinity, selenium, arsenic and uranium levels. But a typical 120acre center-pivot sprinkler costs upwards of $120,000 thanks, in part, to continuing supply chain interruptions and price hikes.

Sprinklers require little labor but deliver impressive efficiency—90%, compared to 40% efficiency for flood irrigation—meaning more water is used by crops and less water is lost to evaporation or returns to the river or groundwater aquifer. And sophisticated technology, such as GPS-guided water application, accurately meets crops’ needs—even when soil variations within the same field mean that some plants should receive one inch of irrigation while others require 1.5 inches. That precision benefits such crops as sweet corn, which topples easily when its roots sit in soil that’s loosened by too much water. Limiting the amount of applied water that ends up filtering back to streams and groundwater also reduces the potential for migrating pollutants.

Sprinklers’ expense prevents them from becoming universally adopted, but so does their broadcast pattern. Generally, sprinklers are designed to distribute water over neat geometric shapes like squares and circles. Irregular or odd-shaped fields, commonly found in Colorado’s mountain communities, are harder to serve with sprinklers. And some crops don’t thrive

Ahmad Abdur Rehman Lund

beneath the showers. “Broccoli doesn’t like heat, so it does well in the cooler microclimate of the sprinkler,” says Robert Sakata, a farmer near Brighton who also serves on the board of directors for various agencies and organizations including the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, and the National Onion Association. His onions, however, grew bigger when furrows delivered their water. “Why? I’m not sure,” says Sakata, “But I know the yields.”

Drip irrigation, which strings seep hoses through the soil at the level of plants’ roots, is even more expensive—and efficient. It’s what Sakata would install if money were no object, because even sprinklers can’t equal drip’s ability to match plants’ water needs. But crop rotation, where crops are altered from season to season to avoid depleting soils’ nutrients, complicates hose layouts, which must be adjusted to each plant’s preferred depth.

Drip also assumes continuous water delivery, which Sakata can’t count on. During drought periods, when ditch shares are limited, ditches deliver water to growers by section, so that one producer might get water for two days, then no water for the following four.

Still more BMPs include installing grass filter strips, like the ones at Lempka Farms.

Lining the small ponds that growers use to feed their sprinklers also reduces the flow of contaminants, says Goble, whose district just lined its eighth sprinkler pond.

Projects that reduce the amount of tilled soil in each field also improve water quality by trapping more of the applied water in the soil and limiting contaminated runoff. Since 2010, when Colorado farmers asked CSU to create a demonstration plot measuring the benefits of conservation tillage–which includes no-till, low-till and other tillage practices that reduce erosion by protecting the soil surface–various metrics have borne out its benefits for efficiency, water quality and soil health. Farmers are readily adopting the new tillage strategies because they have fewer costly inputs: Less water requires less fuel and labor, and improves soil health, says Wardle. “They see that if they do this well, they’ll make more money.”

Some producers also adopt BMPs to avoid mandatory oversight. In 2012, Colorado passed Regulation 85 to address dispersed,

BEST PRACTICES FOR WATER QUALITY Install a Vegetative Filter or Buffer Strip WHY DO IT? To filter or prevent eroded soil or nutrient-laden water from being transported

from a farm field into surface waterways.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: A permanent strip of vegetation planted at the tail-end of a sloping

field that intercepts and filters runoff before it reaches a surface water system.

WATER QUALITY OR QUANTITY BEST PRACTICE? Quality

Test to Manage Nutrient Applications WHY DO IT? To reduce the waste of valuable nutrients for crop growth. Nutrients are often

applied to fields in the form of fertilizer, but these fertilizers may become hazardous to the environment, and uneconomical for producers if they are not managed correctly.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Test soil annually for nutrient quantities and to determine nitrogen

and phosphorous application rates to avoid over-fertilizing. Use controlled release fertilizers.

Develop a nutrient management plan, applying phosphorus fertilizer via banding, incorporating manure immediately after spreading, splitting nitrogen applications, establishing buffer zones around water supplies, and managing irrigation to reduce leaching and runoff.

WATER QUALITY OR QUANTITY BEST PRACTICE? Quality

Improve Irrigation Application Efficiency WHY DO IT? Proper irrigation management provides adequate moisture to crops, while

helping keep water, soil sediment and nutrients in the field. Over-irrigation wastes water and can flush fertilizer, nutrients and sediment away from fields and into rivers.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Adopting higher efficiency irrigation systems (e.g. sprinkler or drip)

in places where it is pragmatic, using irrigation scheduling platforms to assist with irrigation timing, using soil moisture sensors to accurately depict soil moisture status as opposed to by hand or by visual crop stress, using surge irrigation where applicable.

WATER QUALITY OR QUANTITY BEST PRACTICE? Both

Switch to Conservation Tillage WHY DO IT? Conventional tillage practices leave bare soil vulnerable to wind and water

erosion and can lead to soil loss and compaction. Conservation tillage can prevent soil erosion, increase irrigation water infiltration, increase soil moisture preservation, build soil health, provide wildlife shelter, and enhance soil organic carbon sequestration.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:: Any tillage or planting system that keeps at least 30% of the soil

surface covered by residue following planting. This be done through various tillage practices including no-till, strip till, ridge till, and mulch till systems.

WATER QUALITY OR QUANTITY BEST PRACTICE? Both

Plant Cover Crops WHY DO IT? Prevent soil loss from wind and water erosion, improve soil structure, increase

organic matter, reduce weed pressure, improve/maintain soil ecology, enhance carbon sequestration, improve soil water infiltration, and reduce nutrient waste by using leftover fertilizer in the cover crop.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Cover crops can be planted in the fall after harvest, in the early

spring, or during the growing season to cover bare spots. Common cover crops include annual ryegrass, Sudan grass, oats, buckwheat, and legumes such as peas, beans, alfalfa, clover and vetch.

WATER QUALITY OR QUANTITY BEST PRACTICE? Both

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Silt Water Conservancy District superintendent Jason Spaulding inspects an upgraded water conveyance structure downstream from the Harvey Gap Reservoir, north of Rifle on Colorado’s Western Slope, in 2019. The structure was previously in disrepair and subject to leakage and water loss. Lined and piped conveyances, like this, significantly reduce water loss and seepage and improve downstream water quality by minimizing the mobilization of naturally occurring selenium, salts and other contaminants from the subsurface to the river system.

“nonpoint” sources of nutrient pollution related to agricultural operations. Point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and animal feed lots, were already regulated.

State regulators urged growers to voluntarily adopt practices that improve water quality, and this year, they’ll review whether sufficient gains have been made to forestall additional rules.

“We have made good progress,” says Nicole Rowan, director of the Water Quality Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

She says the education campaign that the state conducted with entities such as CSU and the Colorado Department of Agriculture has motivated many producers to pursue federal cost-share opportunities that help clean up water sources. Consequently, Rowan does not expect to recommend that the state adopt compulsory participation or ad-

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ditional regulation. Besides, she notes, other states across the nation, including those along the Mississippi River, are also inviting voluntary compliance from agricultural producers and have achieved promising water quality improvements.

In Colorado, the Lower Gunnison isn’t the only waterway to make measurable gains in quality. The South Platte has also improved its scorecard, says Rowan. In 1989, when CSU began its agricultural water quality program database with sampling conducted along that river in Weld County, 83% of sampled wells exceeded acceptable standards for nitrate (a contaminant associated with fertilizer runoff ), but that fell to 55% in 2020.

There is some conflict between projects that improve water quality by reducing seepage or boosting efficiency and the need to protect the flow of water to downstream users and the environment.

Significant habitat has developed around ditch seepage—irrigation-induced wetlands and other vegetation allow return flows to recharge groundwater in places and provide rich habitat to birds and wildlife. Without seepage and excess irrigation water, those environments would die off.

Then there are legal and financial barriers that can disincentivize water efficiency.

For example, Goble often fields concerns from growers who are reluctant to line their sprinkler ponds, because doing so could forfeit a pond seepage credit they receive, potentially increasing their need to purchase additional replacement water to stay in compliance with a set of Irrigation Improvement Rules specific to the region.

Producers in the Arkansas River Basin who become more efficient with irrigation have to pay in augmentation costs. These rules were instituted by the Colorado State Engineer in 2011 to ensure that downstream water users aren’t shorted and ensure compliance with the Arkansas River Compact. The compact with Kansas decrees that the Arkansas must maintain the same flows that it delivered in 1949. “Water seeping from sprinkler ponds goes back to the river and heads downstream to Kansas,” explains Goble.

In other watersheds, Colorado’s water laws sometimes mean that producers who improve efficiency risk losing some of their water rights and compromising the dollar value of their properties. “It’s a nuanced issue, and can be a real barrier to efficiency improvements, at least in some locations,” says Wardle.

As always with water solutions, magic wands are few. But fractions matter, and widespread implementation of broad-spectrum management practices can transform Colorado’s water quality. All it takes is a growing number of Larry Lempkas who are curious about their impact. “Some people are more worried that somebody is going to pinpoint them as a problem,” admits Lempka, who spreads a contrary message. “These studies are not policing anything,” he says. “They let us know where we can make a difference.” H A freelance writer living in Steamboat Springs, Kelly Bastone covers water, conservation and the outdoors for publications including Outside, AFAR, 5280, Backpacker, Field & Stream, and others.

Courtesy Dave “DK” Kanzer / Colorado River District

How Do We Sustain Agriculture?

Keeping Colorado's acres in ag means facing a multitude of challenges head-on

BY ALEJANDRA WILCOX

T

he landscape of Colorado agriculture is challenging, both metaphorically and literally. First, there’s climate change and variability. Take the 2013 flooding in northeastern Colorado and the 20-plus years of drought across the Colorado River Basin. Or the major wildfires that have ripped through the lands ranchers rely on for grazing their livestock, and the resulting continual sedimentation in rivers and ditches that producers use for crop irrigation. Then there are ongoing supply chain issues connected to the pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, which have wrenched costs higher on everything from gas to fertilizer to tractors, and forced producers to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to feed their cattle or if they need to fallow their fields. But the challenges with agriculture reach beyond production itself. Take rural healthcare, a top concern and contributor to the success of rural communities and producers.

Keeping agriculture—a $47 billion business in Colorado and one of the state’s top industries—sustainable means facing all of those challenges, and others, head-on.

Christi Bode Skeie courtesy of Colorado’s Water Quality Control Division Nonpoint Source Program

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39,000

farm operations were active in Colorado as of 2021. ✺ ✺ ✺

32 million

privately owned acres are in agricultural production—that’s nearly half of the state. ✺ ✺ ✺

5%

of irrigated lands statewide are projected to be lost to urbanization. ✺ ✺ ✺

6%–7%

of irrigated acres supplied by groundwater in Colorado are projected to be lost due to aquifer sustainability issues. ✺ ✺ ✺

8%–15%

more water is required to maintain a well-watered crop in 2020 relative to 1980 due to increases in evapotranspiration. ✺ ✺ ✺

44%

of Colorado’s pasture and rangeland was in poor or very poor condition due to drought in late June 2022. ✺ ✺ ✺

2.5°

Fahrenheit—that’s how much Colorado has warmed in the last 120 years. The state could warm by 4 degrees by 2050.

28 • W A T E R E D U C A T I O N C O L O R A D O

On a wheatfield in Akron, Colo., Kate Greenberg, Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture, meets with Colorado state Rep. Rod Pelton, Colorado Water Conservation Board board member Robert Sakata, and a local producer to see the effects and declines in yield that the wheat stem sawfly, a grassfeeding insect, can cause in wheat production.

Kate Greenberg, Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture, spends about half of her time in the field, sitting around supper tables on peach farms and hay operations and cattle ranches, hearing from folks in community halls, and listening to concerns directly from producers as they work their land. Greenberg says that Colorado’s nearly 40,000 farms and ranches are preparing for and adapting to the onslaught of challenges, even though working in food and fiber is not easy during the best of times.

“Agriculture is sensitive to shifts in climate and economy, but it is also remarkably resilient,” Greenberg says. “That’s because people work their tails off.”

While agriculture is not alone in experiencing these issues, Greenberg notes that producers feel the major impacts of crises like droughts first.

Dallas May has spent his entire life ranching and farming in southeastern Colorado, where his family had been leasing land since 1980, which they were finally able to purchase in 2012.

“We make big mortgage payments, and we don’t PRECEDING PAGE Gwen Cameron strolls through the organic peach orchard at Rancho Durazno, which she runs with her father in western Colorado’s Palisade. They used to irrigate through flooded furrows but switched to using micro-sprinklers, which deliver water to the tree crops and cover crops slowly, evenly and efficiently.

have room to stub our toes—everything has to work,” May says.

May had hoped that with Colorado snowpack upwards of the 90th percentile in the Arkansas River Basin this past winter, their water supply for the summer might be close to normal. But snowpack began to drop exponentially, and May says that his soil’s moisture profile has dried so much that even near-average moisture won’t make much difference.

Water is the most vital part of many producers’ businesses, which has forced them to figure out how to do business with fewer resources, says Greg Peterson, executive director of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance.

For example, many ranchers grow their own hay to feed the cattle they raise for profit. If there’s less water, they’re unable to grow as much hay, and if there’s less hay, that might mean significantly reducing a herd of cattle. Preliminary findings from a statewide 2020 drought survey conducted

by Colorado State University (CSU) and the Colorado Ag Council found that about half of Colorado livestock producers reported that they reduced their herd size that year.

The economic impact of drought is significant.

The CSU survey found that 45% of respondents received some type of financial relief due to 2020 drought conditions.

Courtesy Colorado Department of Agriculture

Farmers and ranchers don’t set the price of their own goods and are often trapped by rising and falling prices on both ends of the supply chain.

“Last year, the price of beef was up but the price of cattle was down. [Ranchers] were almost losing money,” Peterson explains. “Where so many businesses have the ability to just charge more, these people can’t.”

This is, in part, the result of lack of competition in the meatpacking industry. The four largest beef-packing firms control 85% of the U.S. beef market. These meatpackers buy from ranchers and sell to grocers, giving them price-setting power.

According to a January briefing from the White House, ranchers today are making 39 cents for every dollar a consumer spends on beef, that’s down 35% from where it was 50 years ago, when ranchers made 60 cents per dollar.

All of this means more farms and ranches will be up for sale. The 2015 Colorado Water Plan estimates that, at worst, Colorado will lose 20% of its irrigated acreage in the next 30 years. The 2019 Technical Update to the Colorado Water Plan projects a 5% loss of agricultural lands statewide due to urbanization and the loss of some 33,000 to 76,000 acres or more in the Arkansas and South Platte river basins due to water rights purchases that have already occurred or are soon likely to occur, removing the water from the land to support growing cities and other uses. It also projects that 6% to 7% of irrigated acres supplied by groundwater will be lost due to aquifer sustainability issues.

“That’s a lot of farms and ranches we’re going to lose, and we’re only going to need more food in the future,” Peterson says.

While Colorado’s population is growing and will need more food to sustain it—the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Colorado’s population grew at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the country between 2010 and 2020—food grown within Colorado isn’t always sold or consumed in the state or even the country. There are many reasons for this: Consumers demand an array of product choices, which large grocery retailers provide through their global supply chains. Supermarkets remain the dominant locale for food shopping, although the number of farm stands and direct sales from producers to consumers are increasing.

The Colorado Blueprint of Agriculture and Food, a report produced in 2017 by researchers with CSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, found that a lot of product both leaves and enters the state.

“It is not clear from the available data what share of the value of food and agricultural products sold at retail within Colorado actually came from Colorado agriculture,” the report’s authors

Adobe Stock

For many small farms, sales through direct markets and farmers markets are significant. Farms with gross cash farm income below $75,000 accounted for 85% of local food in 2012, according to the Colorado Blueprint of Agriculture and Food, a report produced in 2017 by researchers with Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

write, attributing this to lack of data and the challenges of measuring such a complex value chain. But all of those products contribute to the state’s economy. Fresh beef is Colorado’s second largest export overall, behind only aircraft engines and parts, according to data from the World Trade Center Denver.

“Colorado’s economy is in rural Colorado, which produces products critical to both Colorado and the world,” says May. “Water has to stay in rural Colorado for everybody’s benefit, because once it’s gone, we may not be able to recover.”

100%+

Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed, doubling or going higher between the summer of 2020 and the end of 2021. High fertilizer prices mean higher input costs for farmers.

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Greg Peterson grows niche crops at his patchwork of small farms in the Denver metro area but also works with agricultural leaders statewide as director of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance, which aims to preserve agriculture through the wise use of Colorado’s water resources.

62%

Increase in average diesel prices in Colorado over its cost a year ago. Diesel fuels tractors and other farm implements, with producers who practice conventional till using 4-6 gallons per acre per year.

The average farm size in Colorado is 817 acres.

Sources: Colorado Department of Agriculture's Colorado Agriculture Brochure; Technical update to the Colorado Water Plan; U.S. Department of Agriculture's Colorado Crop Progress report, week ending in June 26; A multidataset assessment of climatic drivers and uncertainties of recent trends in evaporative demand across the continental U.S., The Journal of Hydrometeorology; The Story of Rising Fertilizer Prices, ARE Update

30 • W A T E R E D U C A T I O N C O L O R A D O

Rural economies, populations and services play a role in agricultural sustainability as well.

In rural areas, healthcare is often not physically or financially accessible—13 out of 64 counties in Colorado have no hospital and emergency medical services take an average of 34 minutes to respond in rural Colorado, according to the Colorado Farm Bureau’s 2020 Future of Agriculture in Colorado Task Force (FACT) report. This matters when farm and ranch production is hard, sometimes dangerous work and the population is aging—31% of farm and ranch operators are 65 or older, the report says. Critical services, such as healthcare, will separate some rural communities from others, the FACT report says.

“Some will thrive and some will fail.” This has ramifications. If communities fail to attract new residents, the business environment that supports agricultural production could fail, causing operations themselves to fail.

Peterson says that awareness surrounding agri-

culture and its benefits is critical. “Agriculture is not optional,” Peterson says.

But these challenges aren’t all bad news, Peterson adds, pointing to his time in the Republican and Rio Grande river basins, which are two of the most water-short places in Colorado. When he sits in on meetings there with farmers and ranchers, Peterson sees something he hasn’t seen anywhere else.

“They’re talking about using less groundwater, voting to tax themselves now so they can maintain their communities in the future. No one is having that conversation in an urban setting—saying we should all make less money or use less of this resource so we can continue our way of life longer.

It’s really interesting and heartening to watch,” Peterson says. H Alejandra Wilcox is a journalist based in northern Colorado. Her work has been broadcast on KGNU and has appeared in the HuffPost, among other outlets.

Matthew Staver

MEMBER’S CORNER A C O M M U N I T Y O F P E O P L E W H O C A R E A B O U T WAT E R

IN THE FIELD

2022 Upper Colorado Basin Tour, Fun + Learning = Success

MISSION: IMPACT Water Education Colorado is the leading organization for informing and engaging Coloradans on water.

Through leadership training, educational resources, and programming, we are working toward a vibrant, sustainable and water-aware Colorado.

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This stop in Palisade at Colterris Winery was a chance to learn about agricultural operations in the Grand Valley that depend on the Colorado River.

Colterris means “from the land,” and from their perch

at this river overlook, the vineyard managers discussed their reliance on the river that feeds the land and sustainable water management practices.

Our members, whether individual members or staff of member organizations, received advance notice of tour registration and a discounted rate. Some participants were surprised to learn that WEco is a membership organization and quickly moved to provide their support for our mission in this fundamental way.

All of our members’ contributions put our mission in motion through valuable programs like this!

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I N N O V AT I V E Potable Water Reuse - Prairie Waters Continued Farming Program - Rocky Ford Award Winning Conservation Program

AWARD WINNING U.S. Water Prize U.S. Water Alliance Partnership for Safe Water Excellence in Water Treatment AMWA Platinum Award Exceptional Utility Performance NACWA Excellence in Management Platinum Award Ranked #1 in Customer Satisfaction with Midsize Water Utilities in the West of the J.D. Power 2021 Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. * jdpower.com/awards