Dolores Water Conservancy District

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper would like to see a new political party called the Agriculture First Party. That was one of the comments he made on a hot Thursday afternoon at an overlook to McPhee Reservoir.

Southwest Colorado farmers are navigating an unusual harvest season after low snowpack, March heat, April freezes and sharply limited irrigation water.

Monsoon storms have improved short-term moisture in southwest Colorado, but McPhee Reservoir remains low and irrigators face major shortages heading into fall.

Extreme drought, limited irrigation water and rising production costs are reducing crop yields as Southwest Colorado enters harvest season.

A transition from one water supplier to another in the town of Dove Creek is reportedly proceeding smoothly, However, the town hall remains closed because of anger and threats directed at staff over major price hikes caused by the change.

Because of an enforcement order issued by the state, the Town of Dove Creek soon will be getting its water from a new source. That decision has led to a price increase that made some town residents so angry that the Town Hall has closed because of threats to staff.

Municipal supplies are protected, but Dolores Water Conservancy District says full-service supplies out of McPhee Reservoir are at extreme shortages this year.

Colorado’s Division of Water Resources held a meeting in Cortez on Wednesday to seek input from irrigators on the division’s proposed water measurement rules. The rules would mean that farmers in the San Juan and Dolores River basins must begin using measurement methods in order to better record the storage and releases of their water. The Division of Water Resources meeting comes after the Yampa and White basins went through a similar rule-making process to crack down on water users diverting from streams without proper measuring devices. And Congress is considering eliminating federal funding for public media. A House subcommittee recently approved legislation that would zero out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A farmer in southwest Colorado is helping administer a federal water conservation program that pays water users in the Upper Basin to curb their use. Greg Vlaming, who’s working to promote the System Conservation Pilot Program to farmers in the Dolores Water Conservancy District area, says those in his region who opt in won’t necessarily be forced to not farm their land in order to save water, and, therefore, earn money from the program. Instead, farmers in the drought-stricken area have a different option: plant crops that need less water in order to conserve, like “forage crops,” which are plants destined to be used as feed for animals.

The System Conservation Pilot Program was recently rebooted with $125 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to fight shrinking water levels in Lake Powell.