Wiggins – Steve Bruntz was hoping to leave his farm to his son, as his father had done for him.
Instead, he’s wondering how to explain to his mother and mother-in-law why his family is on the verge of bankruptcy after state officials shut down their wells and their water, leaving crops to wither in the baking heat.
“This was both of their retirements. The equity they thought they had is gone,” Bruntz said, gazing at the grim figures on his laptop computer, surrounded by fellow farmers who fear they may soon share his fate.
It has been a gloomy spring and summer for farmers along the South Platte River who are growing wheat, corn, sugar beets and melons.
Many had already planted their crops when the state engineer issued a forecast anticipating lower-than-average flows in the South Platte, leading to the shutdown of wells drawing water that would otherwise flow into the river meandering through northeastern Colorado.
When river levels are low, the wells must be turned off to ensure that water users with higher-priority rights get their share. State law allows the wells to be used, as long as they can replace water when it’s needed downstream.
What does it mean? Weld County commissioners fear bankruptcies and foreclosures. The governor declared a state of emergency, but it didn’t help the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District find more water.
Chris Metterd, one of five farmers who gathered around the Bruntz dining room table recently to eat pie and discuss finances, said the value of his 320 acres planted in “gourmet hay” has plummeted from $600,000 to about $90,000 since the wells were shut down. He worries about losing it all.
“They’re taking our water, our equity and our property,” Metterd said glumly, staring down at the dining table in Bruntz’s modest home, surrounded by fields of sunflowers and beans a few miles outside Wiggins, population 950.
The other farmers asked that they not be identified, citing fears that the growing cities along eastern Colorado’s heavily populated Front Range will come after their water, hoping to get it at bargain prices if their farms fail.
For the 50-year-old Bruntz, the loss of water is a problem he can’t solve. He said he was able to cope with the crippling drought that has lingered since 1999, growing sunflowers and beans instead of corn that requires more water.
But instead of helping the farmers cope, he said, the state got tough. It ordered farmers to get their water plans approved in water court instead of going through the state engineer, who for 30 years had worked to juggle the state’s water supply to keep farmers happy and the South Platte flowing.
Bruntz said the final blow came not from nature, but from the Colorado Supreme Court, which this spring upheld a 1969 law requiring well owners to put water back into the South Platte. The state gave him some time to buy enough water to keep going. When he came up short, the state shut down wells he said his father was told to install because he would always have water.
“He paid more for this farm than for a farm with surface water,” Bruntz said. “He knew that in a dry year, it was better than surface water. We had the water under our farm.”
State engineer Hal Simpson, who regulates Colorado’s limited supply of water, balancing the rights of farmers against the rights of homes and businesses who all want to use the water they own, said he was forced to shut down about 2,000 wells that did not have substitute water-supply plans.
Simpson said there is little chance farmers can find enough water to keep going and once a farm goes dry, it’s likely to stay dry.
State Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said he’s trying to find a way to help Bruntz and other farmers who relied on their wells to grow their crops.
He has a plan that would suspend Colorado water law during a drought, allowing the state to fill reservoirs upstream and cascade downriver instead of filling up downstream reservoirs that have senior water rights. Gardner is also exploring a plan that would pump water into the ground in wet years and allow farmers to take it out in dry years.
Gardner said he won’t be able to introduce his bills until January, and hopes farmers can last through the year.
Bruntz said it’s ironic, because there is already enough water in the aquifer under his farm to last forever, but he can’t touch it because he can’t afford to buy water to put back into the South Platte River to replace it.
“My wells won’t run out of water forever, and I can’t turn them on,” he said.
Bruntz said his sons wanted to take over the farm, but he told them farm life is disappearing.
