| What appears to be a contradiction lies just off Interstate
76 in the South Platte River Valley between Brighton and the Nebraska
state line.
Six large irrigation reservoirs are virtually dry, their sandy beds
sun-cracked like the face of many a veteran rancher. The South Platte
itself is barely a trickle in stretches, testament to one of the worst
droughts since 1977.
Yet, many fields of corn, alfalfa and sugar beets stand tall, green and
healthy.
How can this be?
The answer lies in the huge, complex water storage system that made
reservoir water available to many farmers. In dry years like this one,
when rainfall is far below normal, the reservoirs attempt to fill the gap.
Farmers draw off water for their crops, creating for observers the
impression of crisis when the reservoirs become very low. In truth, much
of the drawn-off water returns to the reservoir through natural systems,
and the rest returns from rain and snow.
"We had dry years in 1994 and 1982, but nothing like this
year," said Hal Simpson, state water engineer. "The sky is not
falling, but we need to look at the actions we may have to take if it
continues."
Colorado is exceptionally dry, he said, except for the southeastern
part of the state.
"They got rains in the southeast, and so reservoirs like Pueblo
and John Martin are doing fine," he said.
But across the eastern plains, a warm, dry winter was followed this
year by a hot, dry spring and summer, crippling farmers who count on
winter moisture and spring rain.
The South Platte River transports life-giving water from Denver to the
Nebraska border. When the rains didn't come this spring, farmers turned to
the reservoir companies to give their corn, sugar beets, soybeans and
alfalfa fields a good soaking at the start of the growing season.
That triggered two problems. One was that it crimped the fishing in
reservoirs, in which the siphoning dropped water levels quickly.
Another was that it lowered the water table around the reservoirs,
which some farmers tapped for wells. Farmers with shallow wells had no
water with which to irrigate. Other farmers, with rights to deeper wells,
had plenty of water and their crops did fine.
Mary Jo Doughty is one whose wells were shallow. She lives on the south
side of Jackson Reservoir and was forced to abandon 20 acres of corn that
last year produced 200 bushels per acre.
The Julesburg Reservoir, familiarly known as the Jumbo, contained
24,666 acre-feet of water this spring. At the end of August it had been
reduced to 500 acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to
cover an acre with water 12 inches deep.
From the dike to the foot-deep puddle in the middle of the reservoir,
more than a half-mile away, is a field of cockleburs and the remains of
dead fish.
It is the same for Barr Lake, Empire, Riverside and Pruitt reservoirs.
"Normally in May and June, farmers don't need to irrigate at all
because we get rainfall. That's our wettest time of year," said Nolan
Doesken, assistant state climatologist. "But this year was a
dud."
Wheat, barley and millet farmers in Logan, Phillips, Morgan, Sedgwick
and other northeast counties usually see 14 to 16 inches of rain a year.
This year they got 4 inches, and many qualify for federal disaster relief.
"If you go to the counties in the extreme northeast corner of the
state, you'll see they've lived through a lot this year," Doesken
said. "May and June were the driest in the 110 years that records are
available."
The reservoirs are supposed to be last resorts, insurance policies
against drought. In average years, farmers take water straight from the
river without having to draw water from a reservoir. The water goes into
irrigation canals, and what isn't used flows back into the Platte to be
used downstream.
"Years ago, they came up with the idea of storing water
underground in the winter that would seep back into the river in the
summer," said Ken Bohl, superintendent of the Jackson Lake and
Irrigation Co. and Fort Morgan Irrigation Co. "That's what's ironic.
You could really see the recharge working this summer in the river."
Municipal water supplies aren't affected. Denver's reservoirs, for
example, are 109 percent of average right now, according to Simpson.
"This state's climate is a complicated animal, particularly on the
Front Range and eastern plains, where much of the surface water supply is
from winter snow accumulation," Doesken said.
"In some areas what happens in summer is fairly inconsequential,
and in others summer precipitation is absolutely essential to the annual
water supply."
Normally, he said, the state will experience a good snowpack during the
winter, then thundershowers in the spring and early summer. This year
neither was adequate in the northeast, which was considered in drought.
The last time there were back-to-back drought years was in the early
1950s.
Even so, looking at this year's crops in the South Platte Valley, Bob
McLavey, deputy state agriculture commissioner, predicts a good year
overall. That optimism comes in spite of earlier losses of wheat and small
grains like barley and millet.
"Corn looks very good if they don't have hail," he said.
He said all cuttings of alfalfa also look good, and there are so many
sugar beets that some farmers may apply for U.S.D.A permission to destroy
some crops so prices don't fall too low.
The drought's impact on outdoor recreation is secondary to agricultural
concerns, but it isn't trivial.
Elmer Barker, who has been farming on the south side of Jackson
Reservoir for 40 years, said he has had to sell off land to developers to
pay debts and now is making more from sportsmen hunting game birds than
from farming. Because of the drought, he fears the game birds won't
return.
"The lack of grasslands could hurt pheasant production, and the
water being down won't help turkeys," said Tom Remington, a wildlife
researcher with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
"There may not be good pheasant chick survival, and if we get snow
this winter and icy conditions, it will really hurt them because they
don't have any shelter."
Jim Gammonley, waterfowl researcher for the wildlife division, fears
the migratory patterns of geese and ducks will change because of the
drought, and that could also affect farmers who lease their land for
hunting.
But the big question is what will happen this winter and next year.
"It's not a predictable cycle," Doesken said. "You look
at the data, you'll see there are years that have drought.
"In fact, people who research this predicted a very dry spring for
the South Platte basin in 1999 based on the very same conditions we had
this year — and we had floods (in 1999) instead." |