San Luis Valley Water Trial Forces Groundwater Choice — SkimNews
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- Water regulators and farmers in Colorado's San Luis Valley face a 'lose-lose' decision over management of a rapidly declining aquifer.
- One option requires adopting an aggressive groundwater management plan that would likely force a contraction of the local agricultural economy.
- The alternative is to continue overpumping the aquifer, with further depletion of the valley's water supply.
- The water trial could determine the future of the agricultural valley's farming economy.
Why it matters: The trial's outcome will materially alter farming in the San Luis Valley: enforced groundwater cuts mean fewer irrigated acres and a smaller farm economy, while unchecked pumping continues draining the aquifer that sustains the region. Either path, farmers lose acreage and the valley's agricultural base contracts.
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