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Republican River Compact Puts Spotlight on South Platte Water Supplies
Late last year, state water officials celebrated the milestone of removing thousands of acres of eastern Colorado farmland from irrigation.
By drying up more than 10,000 acres in the Republican River basin – which includes the South Platte River – Colorado remains in compliance with the compact that requires water to be delivered to Kansas and Nebraska.
As has been discussed for years throughout Colorado, and the Mountain West, the depletion of groundwater aquifers in the Denver Basin is putting pressure on water supplies for the communities that heavily rely on it, most notably Douglas County.
The retirement of 10,000 acres is not the end of the process.
Recent media reports detailed how Colorado must retire an additional 15,000 acres of agricultural land from production by the end of the decade and with possibly more “buy and dry” needed to meet Colorado obligations to downstream States.
Officials have already put 7,000 acres under contract.
Pulling 25,000 acres out of irrigation just to meet out-of-state water compact requirements shows the depth of the growing water challenge in the state.
It is also a stark reminder that not one acre of these retirements benefits Colorado water users.
In fact, it puts pressure on plans, such as the billion-dollar Parker Water proposal, that is counting on excess wet year water that may or may not be available from the South Platte River.
The problem is Parker Water is last in line for those junior most water rights.
Constructing any plan that counts on water that may well end up on farms, ranches and communities in other states is like building a castle on very dry sand.
As the development of Douglas County’s comprehensive water plan continues, facing the reality of the varied and growing demands on Colorado water resources, including South Platte River water, will be critical to ensuring the plan is rooted in reality – today and into the future.
Recent Headlines
Kansas looks on as farms retire thousands of acres in water-short northeastern Colorado
Farm communities on the Eastern Plains, under the gun to deliver water to Kansas and Nebraska, are poised to permanently retire 17,000 acres of land, with the help of $30 million in state and federal funding.
From Wray, to Yuma to Burlington, growers are being paid to permanently shut off irrigation wells linked to the Republican River to ensure the vital waterway can deliver enough water to neighbors to the east, as required under the Republican River Compact of 1943.
Historic Western Slope water rights purchase receives $40 million surge of federal funding
Western Slope effort to buy powerful Colorado River water rights linked to the Shoshone Power Plant is nearing a financial finish line thanks to an influx of $40 million in federal funding, announced Friday.
The power plant has one of the oldest, largest water rights on the Colorado River in the state — one that shapes how water flows down the Colorado River to the Utah-Colorado border and through the mountains to Front Range communities. Western Slope communities have been angling to secure flows through Shoshone for years. With the federal funds committed, they have raised $96 million of the $99 million needed for the purchase.
… Shoshone Power Plant, owned by Xcel Energy, sits next to Interstate 70, a few miles east from Glenwood Springs. The plant pulls in Colorado River water, sends it through electricity-producing turbines, and returns it to the Colorado River about 2½ miles downstream.
…Front Range water providers have made plays for the rights in the past, raising concerns on the Western Slope that the westward flow of water through Shoshone could change depending on who owns the rights.
The Colorado River District struck a deal in 2023 to buy the tiny hydro plant’s water rights from Xcel and lease the water back to the company to generate electricity. If the deal is successful as currently outlined, Shoshone’s rights will become the largest, most influential environmental water right in state history.
The Colorado River District’s plan has drawn hawkeyed attention from water players around the state who are keen on protecting their supplies. Any changes to the hydro plant’s rights can have broad ripple effects statewide, from farmers in Greeley to water districts in Grand County and homeowners in Denver.
‘Zero progress’: Western states at impasse in talks on Colorado River water shortages
… The impasse has raised the possibility that if disagreements aren’t resolved, the states could enter a legal battle, a path riddled with uncertainty that water managers in both camps have said they hope to avoid.
A new analysis shows a nearly 30% decline in Colorado’s irrigated lands in the last 25 years, driven in part by the state’s legal obligations to deliver water beyond state boundaries, as in the Republican Basin.
