Sen. Salazar Secures Help for Farmers Along S. Platte Who Were Ordered to Shut Down Their Water-Wells

Washington, D.C. – Farmers along the South Platte River on Colorado's Eastern Plains have suffered losses and uncertainty for the last year and half since they were ordered to shutdown the wells they rely on to irrigate their crops.  During the Senate Agriculture Committee mark-up of the 2007 Farm Bill last week, Senator Salazar led a successful effort to include two provisions in the bill to provide help to assist these producers.    "For Colorado's farmers, the availability of water directly impacts their bottom-line.  When water is suddenly made unavailable their entire year can turn from a potential profit to a guaranteed loss" said Senator Salazar.  "These two provisions in the Farm Bill will help to ensure our farmers along the South Platte River can retire some of their currently unusable acreage into the Conservation Reserve Program and hopefully build enough data so that in the future the State and these farmers can avoid another sudden shutdown of water-wells."   Senator Salazar's first provision began as a common-sense idea from the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District (CCWCD).  The provision allows producers to apply for USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) cost-share program as a group, thus encouraging greater participation in conservation initiatives that benefit from wide participation.  An example of this is CCWCD's well monitoring program.  This program installs meters on existing wells to better monitor groundwater pumping to provide accurate water usage data for different cropping practices as well as the relationship between groundwater and the South Platte River surface flows.   Senator Salazar's second provision provides an option for producers who have lost their water in WeldCounty.  Currently producers in Weld County who wish to retire their land cannot do so because 25% of the county's cropland is already enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the current cap.  The provision will allow USDA to enroll producers on the South Platte River in Weld County, who had their water-wells shut down by State order, into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).    Background: When producers on the South Platte River in Weld, Adams and Morgan Counties had their 449 wells shut down by State order in 2006, tens of thousands of acres dried up.  Of those wells, 219 remain shutdown today.  Weld County is currently at or above the county cap of lands allowed in CRP (25%), effectively eliminating the opportunity for producers to retire their lands to soften their economic shock.    The Farm Bill is expected to be debated by the full Senate as early as next week.  If approved the bill will go to conference committee with the House and then to the President's desk for his signature.   In May of 2006 Senator Salazar encouraged cities and irrigation companies along the Front Range to help relieve the looming agricultural thirst.  Senator Salazar wrote a letter to the cities of Boulder andSterling and irrigation companies controlling water in Highlands Ranch, Hudson and Keenesburg.  Senator Salazar's letter from last year is included below:     May 18, 2006     Mr. Frank Bruno                                              Mr. Joe Kiolbasa Boulder City Manager                                      Sterling City Manager Municipal Building                                            P.O. Box 4000 1777 Broadway – 2nd Floor                              Sterling, CO   80751-0400 Boulder, CO  80306   Henrylyn Irrigation District                                Centennial Water & Sanitation District Attn:  Rodney Baumgartner, Manager   62 W. Plaza Drive 617 Birch                                                         Highlands Ranch, CO  80129 Hudson, CO  80642   Gentlemen:   I am writing to encourage you to do what you can, as quickly as you can, to help relieve the crisis forColorado farmers along the South Platte whose wells have been shut down. Their crisis is immediate, and your decisions and actions over the next few hours and days are critical.   I fully understand the complexities of this issue; I know that there is no simple fix in either the short-term or the long-term.  However, I strongly believe that in the West, we help our neighbors through hard times when we can.   This is one of those times.  These farmers' crops will wither and die within days if there is no water.  The loss of these crops, could, ultimately, result in the loss of these farms, with foreclosures across eastern Colorado.  I urge you to act immediately to help in this emergency situation.   Sincerely,     Ken Salazar                                                              United States Senator