Upper Colorado River Basin states renew plan to pay farmers for water conservation

Farmers and ranchers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico will be eligible to receive compensation for water conservation over the next year, following a recent agreement among these Upper Colorado River Basin states.

Officials from the four states voted last week to revise and extend what’s known as the System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP) — an Upper Basin exploration of solutions aimed at stabilizing plunging water levels in the Colorado River’s storage reservoirs.  

The program, which began as a four-year trial in 2015-2018, aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of temporary, voluntary and compensated conservation opportunities, in which farmers and ranchers received payment for fallowing their land.

During the first three years, about $4.6 million in federal funding went to such opportunities, decreasing water use by about 22,116 acre-feet. In the program’s final year, another 19 projects received nearly $4 million — conserving another 25,097 acre-feet of water, according to the Upper Colorado River Commission (UCRC).

The UCRC, an interstate water administrative agency, includes commissioners from all four Upper Basin states and a fifth appointed by the federal government.

The agency serves to ensure compliance with historic compacts that allocated quantities of water not only to the Upper Basin, but also to the Lower Basin states — Nevada, Arizona and California — and to Mexico.

Several years after the conclusion of the initial SCPP, the Upper Basin commissioners decided to reinitiate the program, with up to $125 million provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, for usage between 2023 and 2026.

Among the core solutions implemented once again in 2023 was a voluntary compensation program, in which farmers and ranchers could receive a base rate of $150 per acre-foot of water conserved.

But there weren’t as many participants interested in the program as initially anticipated — resulting in just about $16 million invested and 37,810 acre-feet of water saved, according to media reports.

For reference, a typical U.S. suburban household uses about 1 acre-foot of water annually. 

Taking these results into account, UCRC commissioners focused on the need to improve any future such plans prior to approving the latest extension, which applies to the 2024 Water Year: Oct. 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024.

Their decision to extend the SCPP occurred as all seven Colorado River basin states embark upon long-term negotiations that will determine the entire system’s operational guidelines after they expire in 2026.

Chief among the revisions in the UCRC’s 2024 program is the ability for farmers to apply earlier than they could in the past, so that those interested in participating can gain greater operational certainty.

“This year’s revamp integrates a lot of input from Colorado water users,” Becky Mitchell, Colorado River Commissioner for the State of Colorado, said in a statement.

Mitchell has been a strong advocate for SCPP reforms, which she said would better reflect the input of water users in her state.

“SCPP should — and can — work in a way that makes sense for Colorado,” Mitchell said. “The pilot program can provide flexibility for Coloradans who want or need to explore innovative conservation projects.”

Other new mechanisms included in the new SCPP are a transparent pricing system to ensure clarity for applicants, measures for increased education and outreach and the prioritization of projects that bolster water conservation and drought resiliency.

Aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of such policy measures, researchers at the University of Wyoming and the Western Landowners Alliance recently conducted a survey of 1,020 agricultural water users across the Colorado River Basin.

While some 70 percent of farmers surveyed had already adopted one or more conservation strategies, most respondents were unlikely to participate in formal demand management efforts.

The survey, released on Monday, found that 88 percent of Upper Basin respondents not only did not participate in the SCPP, but were also unaware of the program’s existence.

“These programs are complicated, and the UCRC’s own analysis suggested the roll-out of the SCPP was rushed,” lead author Drew Bennett, of University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, said in a statement.

Stressing that water users need both clarity and transparency about the program’s details, Bennett and his colleagues voiced their support for more targeted state and federal conservation efforts.

“Our data show a major need to provide farmers and ranchers with more information about these programs by working through trusted sources,” Bennett added.