GREELEY, Colo. — Groundwater wells in the Well Augmentation Subdistrict (WAS) of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District (CCWCD) have been issued a historic 60 percent quota, which was recently set by the district’s board of directors. It was welcomed news for irrigators in that subdistrict, whose wells saw seven years of no pumping, and additional years of minimal pumping, following a 2006 water court decree.
The WAS groundwater wells — many of which irrigate farmground in Adams, Morgan and Weld counties — had zero quota for pumping from 2006-2012, and then saw progressive increases from 2013-2016, thanks to the CCWCD’s development of water supplies. Those water supplies were developed to replace groundwater depletion caused by pumping over time.
According to a press release from CCWCD, the development of these recharge supplies, along with an abundance of rain and snow in the region during recent months, gave the CCWCD board the ability to increase the groundwater-pumping quota to this historic level for owners of WAS wells.
Additionally, water users within the CCWCD’s Groundwater Management Subdistrict (GMS) can now pump at a 57.5 percent quota — an increase of 2.5 percent from the previous year. GMS water wells hadn’t seen a complete shutdown in recent years, like the WAS wells, but due to similar circumstances saw their pumping quotas fall below 50 percent after 2006, and not reach the 50-percent level again until 2015.
For more information, please visit www.ccwcd.org.
— Colorado Corn Growers Association
For more news from Colorado, click here.