By RUTH HEIDI, Courior Editor
ALAMOSA Saguache County rancher Gary Boyce’s plans for a water export project are imminent.
“This is not a forever process,” Boyce said during a recent interview. “This is something that needs to move expediently. We can’t afford to suffer much more damage from depletions of the aquifer. We are in the process right now of pulling together what we need for the application. I’ve got a little more work to do on the augmentation.”
He said now that the Rio Grande Water Conservation District (RGWCD) declined to participate in his proposal, he will move forward without them. He said although he has not yet filed an application with the water court, it would be filed in the near future “months, not years, weeks and months. I am talking to people right now.”
He said he is trying to solve as many issues as possible beforehand.
Boyce said one of his first steps was to approach the water district to see if it would be willing to participate in the project because “that’s the leadership of water policy in the San Luis Valley.”
He believed it would have been beneficial to both the district and Sustainable Water Resources, a company he formed in 2011, to work together. However, he said the district’s support is not necessary for his proposal to succeed.
He added, “I would guess if they aren’t going to support it they will file a statement of opposition and fight it.”
The RGWCD board unanimously declined Boyce’s offer earlier this summer.
Boyce said he plans to set up a SLV Economic Assistance Fund of $150 million, with $50 million targeted for county governments and school districts. He explained he had hoped the water district would have agreed to help distribute the other $100 million through a global augmentation plan for the San Luis Valley that would include the water district’s Sub-District 1.
“That’s no longer possible. They rejected this, so I am going to have to distribute $100 million through the company to deal directly with those that are going to retire wells, retire farms ” Now that RGWCD is out of the mix that leaves more money in the pot for others.”
Boyce indicated that those who support the project will be the ones who will receive SLV Economic Assistance Fund money.
He said the distribution of those funds would probably not be finalized until Sustainable Water Resources files its application.
“Once we file our application I think we are going to know who supports the project and who does not, who’s been helpful and who hasn’t .”
Boyce’s proposal involves exporting 35,000 acre feet from the San Luis Valley to Front Range buyers, whom he did not specify at this time but said were definitely out there.
“The market is there,” he said.
He did not disclose who was backing this project but said it was all private money.
“Everybody that’s going to be involved in the project that is public interest will be on the other side of the table, the beneficiaries ,” he said.
Boyce said some of his ranches would be the first to participate with water rights in this proposal. He owns six ranches in Saguache County encompassing more than 25,000 acres. Born in Del Norte in 1947, Boyce attended school in Sargent and then lived in Aspen for a while before moving back to the Valley to ranch in 1982.
“My ranches will be the first involved as far as setting the base for the project, not all the ranches but I would use this as I expect my neighbors to use it as an opportunity to establish value in my ranches and others.”
He said he owns one of the largest cattle operations in Saguache County with some of the most senior water rights in the San Luis Valley.
“I live here. I farm my ranches ” I value those water rights. I value my ranches,” he said. “I don’t see the project as I designed it, as my engineers designed it, as any threat to my ranches.”
Boyce perceived the continued groundwater pumping as more of a threat to his and others’ water than the free market water system. He said he has not been impressed so far with efforts, or more the lack of efforts, to curtail that pumping and does not trust the government to get the job done.
“I do not trust government to choose winners and losers,” he said. “It’s never seemed to work and I don’t think they are going to get any better at it.”
He was also not impressed with the Rio Grande Decision Support System groundwater model, which he fought in court, but now-retired District Judge O. John Kuenhold ruled that the model was adequate and would determine the science used in this water court.
“I have not filed an application with the water court. Should I do it this is the groundwater model we are going to be using,” Boyce said. “Be careful what you wish for.”
He said he had a number of reasons for introducing this water project.
“Some are self serving,” he said. “I think some of them are in the interests of the San Luis Valley.”
One of the reasons, he said, is to increase the value of water on ranches like his, because he believes the ranching community has been undervalued in the past.
“My view and that of a number of my neighbors in Saguache County and some ranchers in Conejos we recognize this as a groundwater economy that from our perspective this groundwater economy is not beneficial to our ranching operations,” Boyce said. “In many respects we think we are being hurt ” I think that’s been proven and it’s well recognized. People will agree on that but certainly don’t agree on what should be done about it.”
He said it appears the out-of-priority groundwater pumping is not going to stop.
“I accept the fact they have always diverted out of priority and they are going to divert out of priority,” he said. “Otherwise they really couldn’t farm. If they go by the law they are going to have to go away. That’s not going to happen and I don’t want to see that either. There are very few solutions to this other than shutting off a tremendous number of wells. Some of that is going to have to happen.”
He said one of the partial solutions has been the introduction of CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program), which he said has not been in place in the Valley before because it does not work here, and he does not expect it will work now. CREP compensates irrigators for temporarily or permanently taking their land out of production .
“It’s a desperate solution or a solution offered out of desperation,” he said.
Boyce said although the incentives paid in the Valley’s new CREP are some of the highest, they are inadequate.
“I don’t think these farms and wells have been valued properly,” he said. Sustainable Water Resources’ project will offer irrigators a much higher value for their water, also taking into account lost income from permanently surrendering those rights, Boyce said.
“We ranchers are not part of the groundwater economy to any great extent,” he added. “Our water in the right set of circumstances is very valuable. This is one of the reasons I am undertaking this project.”
In addition to increasing the value of water resources on ranches, another reason Boyce stated for proposing this export project is: “We will have an advocate that will protect us because they have to protect their project. These are people that can afford to protect these resources.”
They will bring cash to the project to bring it to reality, which will include purchasing augmentation water, Boyce explained.
Recognizing no new water is available, and existing water must be augmented, the Sustainable Water Resources project will enter agreements with irrigators to permanently retire their water, which Boyce said is already occurring to some extent with CREP and Sub-District 1 for less money than his project could provide.
“As the state grows the reality is more and more water is going to come from agriculture,” he said. He said in the past rural Colorado may have had more power than it has now, but the reality is the Front Range economy and growth will demand additional water resources. He said although people in the Valley may say they will “rise up and fight,” he believes “you will rise up and lose.”
He pointed to the town of Dillon, which was relocated to accommodate Dillon Reservoir and the demands of the Denver Water Department, which condemned the entire town so it could build the reservoir on top of it.
“That’s how powerful water departments are in this state.”
Boyce said he has had a number of calls from interested irrigators but Sustainable Water Resources has not yet entered any contracts.
“We have to have more public discussion before we settle on the prices. I want to hear more of what my neighbors have to say in Saguache County. I want to hear what my ranching compatriots have to say down in Conejos.”
He concluded, “If this was somebody else doing this project I would still be involved. This is the kind of project that’s going to help my neighbors and my ranching operation.”