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• Board Meeting Date: 3/18/2008
• Description: IWMD Section - Presentation of Agricultural Water Conservation Paper
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Executive Summary
The Colorado Ag Water Alliance is an association of agricultural organizations
committed to the preservation of irrigated agriculture through the wise use of
Colorado's water resources. Agriculture in Colorado currently owns and manages the
majority of the state's water rights, placing this water to beneficial use for the production
of our food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy crops. There is a public perception that
implementation of agricultural water conservation measures such as canal liiung and
conversion to sprinklers can easily provide additional water supplies to meet growing
demands for urban, industrial, recreation, and environmental water needs in Colorado.
To address these perceptions, an analysis of the current scientific literature and the
administrative precedents in Colorado was undertaken to identify the opportunities and
challenges associated with irrigation water conservation. This document is not a legal
brief; it is intended to help foster dialog and a greater understanding of the challenges
facing irrigated agriculture in Colorado.
Under current laws and customs, opportunities for
producing signficant amounts of transferable water for
municipal and industrial (M&I} uses through agricultural
conservation measures are constrained by certain
physical, legal and economic factors. When considering
the potential for agricultural water conservation, it is
important to understand the distinctions between saved
and salvaged water, as opposed to water that is made
available by reducing the consumptive use from irrigated
crops. Much of the debate over water conservation
indicates that imprecise use of terminology creates
confusion and often obscures the real policy considerations. Saved and salvaged water,
as currently construed in Colorado, do not include the concept of water potentially
conserved through the reduction of crop consumptive use. A new term, Conserved
Consumptive Use Water, is proposed to describe water that is part of the consumptive
use of a water right that is removed from an irrigated cropping system. The transfer of
this water, while possible under Colorado water law, has not yet been tested in water
court or codified by the legislature.
Approximately one-third of Colorado's irrigated acres have already been converted to
more efficient sprinkler or drip systems. In particular, irrigators who rely on deep or
nonrenewable groundwater already have significant incentive for water conservation.
Reducing the amount of groundwater pumped decreases energy costs as it prolongs the
economic life of aquifers. Many Colorado farmers have switched to irrigation systems
with enhancements such as drop nozzles, low-pressure delivery systems, irrigation
scheduling, minimum tillage, and other techniques to improve on-farm efficiency and
reduce pumping requirements.
Water conservation measures, such as converting to more efficient irrigation systems,
also have significant limitations. A primary factor is that the amount of water legally
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