by Payton Liming | Sep 1, 2023 | Board Meetings, Conservation Programs, Latest News, Meeting Announcements
September 5, 2023
virtually via Zoom after Special Board Meeting
410 Main Street, Suite 10, Wray, CO 80807
8:00 AM Welcome – Rod Lenz, Committee Chairman
- Approval of agenda
- Report on recent RRCA
- Report about RAMP contracts
- Discussion on updates to manuals and policies
by Payton Liming | Aug 25, 2023 | Assessment Fees, Board Meetings, Latest News, Meeting Announcements
August 29 2023
In person meeting at the RRWCD office, 410 Main Street, Suite 8, Wray CO 80758
AGENDA:
8:00 AM
Welcome- Kevin Penny, chairperson
Prayer
Evaluate and review potential changes to water use fee structure
Determine next step for committee
Adjourn
by Payton Liming | May 15, 2023 | Board Meetings, Conservation in the News, Conservation Programs, CREP, EQIP, Latest News, Legislation, SFFZ, SFRRC
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act sponsored by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO.) and Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS)
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), leverages federal and non-federal funds to target specific state, regional, or nationally significant conservation concerns. Traditionally, it has provided farmers and ranchers with payments to remove land from production in order to address specific conservation concerns. Each CREP is unique, and in drought-prone regions in Colorado, Kansas, and across the West and the Great Plains, CREP is used primarily to voluntarily reduce water consumption on farmland.
However, the CREP program has not always worked as intended, and producers have sought more flexibility to achieve CREP goals while allowing for alternative water conservation practices and fairer compensation for enrollment in the program. The 2018 Farm Bill included a provision to allow dryland farming on retired irrigated acres in CREP. Unfortunately, USDA still has not implemented this provision, and payments on these acres are insufficient to encourage participation in key regions where water conservation is a top concern.
For example, Colorado’s Republican River CREP is a partnership between USDA, the Republican River Water Conservancy District, and the State of Colorado to reduce irrigation water use of the Ogallala Aquifer, a critical water source for the Great Plains, and to help Colorado satisfy its commitments under the Republican River Compact, a water allocation agreement between Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska that has been in place since 1943. In recent years, the Republican River CREP has faced challenges enrolling enough producers in the program to meet CREP’s objectives. Producers are hesitant to permanently retire their water rights and take their land out of production as a result of lower payment rates in certain areas of the Republican River Water Conservation District.
Other CREPs have faced similar challenges with the program’s lack of flexibility. In Southern Colorado, 40 percent of the farmland grows alfalfa, but is ineligible for enrollment into the CREP overseen by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District because a producer must show a historical rotational cropping pattern. This inflexibility hinders the ability of the Rio Grande CREP to achieve their water conservation goals using the program.
Additionally, the CRP program’s $50,000 annual cap on payments to producers often restricts participation by producers with multiple fields in production, further limiting the success of water conservation CREPs.
Specifically, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act would improve the CREP program by:
● Explicitly directing USDA to allow dryland agricultural uses on CREP acreage where appropriate;
● Specifically adding dryland crop production and grazing to the list of appropriate conservation practices for the CREP program;
● Allowing continuous cropping systems, like alfalfa, to be eligible for drought and water conservation CREP agreements;
● Ensuring fairer payments to producers by stipulating that annual payments for drought and water conservation CREP agreements will be equal to the difference between the irrigated acre payment rates and the dryland acre payment rates, as determined by USDA. And ensuring that any drought and water conservation agreement that includes the permanent retirement of a water right receives the full irrigated acre payment rate;
● Making the payment formula retroactive for existing drought and water conservation agreements;
● Letting producers choose their payment allocations under the program, instead of a fixed payment per year for the 10-15 year contract period; and
● Waiving CREP payments from the $50,000 annual payment limitation under the Conservation Reserve Program.
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act will provide the flexibility farmers and ranchers need to conserve water on working lands under CREP, while providing them with fair compensation for retiring their water rights or limiting their water use.
(Text from press release from Sen. Bennet’s office.)
If you would like to view the Act, please click the following link: A BILL To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to modify the conservation reserve enhancement program.
by Payton Liming | Jan 23, 2023 | Assessment Fees, Board Meetings, Conservation in the News, Conservation Programs, Latest News, Uncategorized
The county assessors and treasurers are working on the 2023 tax rolls for their counties. The tax roll includes an assessment on irrigated acres from the Republican River Water Conservation District (RRWCD).
The RRWCD assessments fund the district’s ongoing Compact Compliance efforts. In the past, the assessment was $14.50 per irrigated acre. Acres irrigated in the 2022 calendar year will be assessed $30 per acre on the upcoming tax roll.
In 2016, the Republican River Compact Administration (RRCA), consisting of the State Engineers from Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, approved a Resolution which allowed Colorado 100 percent credit for the water delivered by the Compact Compliance Pipeline.
In exchange for the 100 percent credit, Colorado agreed to retire 25,000 irrigated acres in the South Fork Focus Zone (SFFZ), located in parts of Kit Carson and Yuma counties, by the end of 2029. Colorado must have 10,000 irrigated acres permanently retired in this area by the end of 2024 and the remaining 15,000 acres retired from irrigation by December 31, 2029.
Colorado State Engineer, Kevin Rein, previously stated that if Colorado does not retire the acres by the deadlines stipulated in the 2016 RRCA Resolution, he will shut down all large capacity wells in the Republican River Basin. This includes all irrigation, municipal and large commercial wells.
Throughout 2021, the RRWCD held over 30 public meetings all over the basin to discuss increasing the water use fee to offset the additional expense of retiring acres in the South Fork Focus Zone.
During the November 2021 quarterly Board meeting the RRWCD held a public hearing on increasing the RRWCD Water Use Fee Assessment from $14.50 per irrigated acre to $30 per irrigated acre. The board voted unanimously to approve increasing the annual fee with the stipulation the fee would “sunset” (return to $14.50) at the end of 2029. The board deemed it crucial to have a dependable source of funding in place to meet the retirement of acres required to meet the 2024 and 2029 deadlines.
Landowners who own irrigated land throughout the basin are eligible to enter conservation program contracts. Every week producers in the basin meet with the RRWCD staff to discuss the voluntary, permanent retirement of irrigated acres in the basin for new and current conservation programs. Working with well owners and local Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices, the RRWCD has retired 6,278 irrigated acres in the SFFZ.
For more information contact the RRWCD district office, 970-332-3552 or call Deb Daniel, RRWCD General Manager, at 970-630-3525.
by Suzanna Baker | Apr 22, 2022 | Assessment Fees, Board Meetings, Closed, Conservation in the News, Conservation Programs, CREP, EQIP, Latest News, Legislation, Meeting Announcements, Pipeline Project, SFFZ, SFRRC, Uncategorized
Regarding a Potential for a Future Per Acre-Foot Fee that Could Include 2022 Water Use