Nevada is testing out a pilot program that encourages farmers to retire their water rights in an effort to reduce over-drafting of precious groundwater.
EUREKA, Nev. — Denise Moyle was a no. Her sister Dusty was a no. Their father was against the idea, too.
Nevada’s approach is more carrot than stick. With $25 million in federal pandemic aid, state officials decided to run a one-time test of whether farmers would be interested in selling all or a portion of their legal rights to draw groundwater. They focused on Nevada’s most depleted basins, where over-pumping is emptying rivers and threatening future crops.By this spring, they had their answer: There were more applicants than money to pay them. Farmers and ranchers offered to sell $65.
By giving up even a fraction of their water rights, the sisters were placing a big bet on the future, and on themselves.Nevada’s groundwater crisis began more than four decades ago, when state officials overestimated the size of the state’s aquifers and gave farmers rights to water that didn’t exist. When people ask Jeff Fontaine, the executive director of the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority, why the state should spend taxpayer dollars to buy out water rights, he starts the story here.
Tibbitts said many applicants plan to continue farming. They didn’t put all of their water up for sale, choosing instead to hold back their most senior rights or their most productive wells. Those farmers have options: they can fallow some fields, turn them into dryland pasture for cows, horses and sheep, or experiment with crops that thrive on less water.
Two years ago, Colorado lawmakers set aside $60 million to retire groundwater wells used to irrigate farmland in the San Luis Valley, As aquifers dry up and droughts intensify, the nonprofit Colorado Open Lands is trying to use conservation easements to preserve water and help families facing difficult decisions about whether to continue farming. Known primarily as a route to land preservation, conservation easements are a legal mechanism that allows families to stay on their land, lower their taxes, and receive compensation for reducing their groundwater use — or stopping pumping entirely.
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