For years, northern Nevada’s economy has relied on pumping large amounts of groundwater. Farmers use it for irrigating, mines use it for extracting, and communities use it for drinking.
But there’s not enough to go around in many areas. One watershed feeling the effects is the Walker River Basin, where the groundwater has been drying up for decades. That’s largely because Nevada officials allowed farmers to overpump irrigation wells across the 3,000-square-mile basin.
Now, the state wants to use $25 million in federal funds to pay farmers to cut back. The effort is being facilitated by water agencies and conservation groups, such as the Walker Basin Conservancy.
“This pilot program is pioneering a way to basically buy back the right to pump that groundwater, to reduce groundwater pumping through the acquisition, and ultimate retirement of the right to pump that groundwater,” said Peter Stanton, the group’s executive director. “We will be working with farmers and ranchers who have rights that they're interested in selling, acquiring those rights, and ultimately taking them off of the books.”
Similar efforts are being made in Colorado. Last year, state officials set aside $60 million to pay farmers to retire groundwater rights in the Rio Grande and Republic River basins.
Groundwater shortages are not only an issue in the Mountain West.
In Arizona, homebuilding is being halted in the Phoenix area because of low groundwater levels. In Kansas, corn production is plummeting because industrial farmers are draining aquifers. And in New York State, drinking-water wells on Long Island are being threatened by overpumping.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
