The declining Ogallala Aquifer

Rain was threatening when Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law about water scarcity in the Republican River Basin. Where he penned his signature was in a most unusual place.

by Allen Best

On an overcast, threatening-to-rain Saturday morning, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law in northeastern Colorado in what would ordinarily be considered a very odd place.

The Polis team chose a location alongside a county road for the signature that made HB23-1220 a law. Titled “Study Republican River Groundwater Economic Impact,” the law concerns the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer within the Republican River Basin.

Flows of the river, small even by standards of Colorado, are heavily dependent upon interactions with the Ogallala Aquifer. From its headwaters on the high plains near Akron, Limon, and Haxtun, the several forks of the river flow into Kansas and Nebraska.

In 1942, Colorado ratified an interstate compact with the downstream states regarding allocations of water from the Republican. Then came the widespread adoption of high-capacity wells followed by center-pivot sprinklers that permitted exploitation of the Ogallala and other aquifers. Flows in the river declined. Kansas and Nebraska complained, rolling out the legal sabers.

By 2004, Colorado had formed a conservation district with the mission of reining in exploitation of the diminishing resource. In 2016, a resolution between Colorado and its neighbors gave Colorado a specific target. It must figure out how to eliminate irrigation from 25,000 acres in the South Fork by the end of 2029.

The green dots represent wells in Colorado’s portion of the Republican River Basin, and the red and yellow dots indicate wells that have now been taken out of production in recent years. Source: Republican River Water Conservation District

This study, with an appropriation of $146,000 to the Colorado Water Center, which is housed within Colorado State University, must examine the economic impacts to Colorado and its adjoining states if the state fails to achieve the reductions. If Colorado falls short, the state engineer is obligated to curtail all large-capacity groundwater withdrawals within the Republic River Basin. That study is due by 2026.

Representatives from the Republican River Water Conservation District in March told a state legislative committee that they wanted the study to reinforce what is at stake. In an interview with Big Pivots after the committee hearing, Rod Lenz, who chairs the board, described an “evolution of accountability” as regards over-drafting of the Ogallala Aquifer. “We all knew it was coming. But it was so far in the future. Well, the future is here now.” See: “Facing hard deadlines in water and in climate, too.”

Making the reductions easier will be new wrinkles in a federal program that was announced in mid-May. See: “Democrats aplenty gather to celebrate a Republican.”

As for that bill signing along the county road six miles north of Yuma, well, it had been scheduled for a private home. For reasons not explained by the Polis team, the location was changed, a tent was set up, remarks made, and the bill signed. It may not have been the first bill-signing along a county road, but no one could necessarily point to a precedent.

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