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decades to travel from one place to another, making it difficult to track which wells are depriving a stream of its flow. Experts used streamflow records from the 24,900- square -mile basin and water -level measurements from about 10,000 wells dating back to the 1930s to help build a database. These tools help calculate the consumptive use of a well and its effect on a stream. Overall, experts estimate 30,000 acres of the 565,000 -acre area will need to be fallowed before Colorado can live within its compact allocation. But ongo- ing drought and continued pumping of the 3,967 wells in the basin have kept Colorado owing water toward the com- pact, which has a compliance deadline of the last day of 2007. have to retire existing wells," says Knox. "So we're trying to identify which ones are the most advanta- geous to retire for compact compliance." In other words, experts try to deter- mine which wells are pumping the most water that would have reached the stream if they didn't exist. Each well's proximity to the river is a clue. Wells located nearer to the river are worth more compensation if they shut down, like Earl's well near the Arikaree River. But it's not that easy. It is kind of shutting down part of the says Stan Murphy, Republican River Water Conservation District manager. The rural economy relies on everything from feed lots to fertilizer companies. Officials are trying to keep the liveli- hoods of the communities in mind, said Knox. They would prefer to scatter the curtailment of wells rather than heavy - handedly shut down one area. "From an engineering point of view, I could target 40 wells all in the same area within a mile of the stream and it might solve our problem," Knox says. "But it would completely decimate 75 percent of the gross crop revenues in that county." "We need to spread the wealth as well as spread the pain." For every irrigated acre in Colorado's portion of the Republican River Basin, approximately $495 is generated in eco- nomic activity for the community, said James Pritchett, an assistant professor at Colorado State University, who conduct- ed a regional economic study to look at how money is spent inside and outside the region. The study included all of Yuma and Phillips counties, and portions of Kit Carson, Sedgwick, Lincoln, Logan and Washington counties. He estimates only one -third of the land is suitable for dryland farming; the highest - dollar crops require irrigation. Seventy percent of the irrigated crops in the region are corn. In a region where 37 perc t comes from direct sales from farm pro- ducers, shutting down irrigated agricul- ture would be devastating. Rather than descending upon the rural communities with curtailment orders, th state engineer's office decided to wor with the newly formed conservation dis trict to voluntarily shut down wells. With federal grants to leverage the district's dollars, people who own wells located within three miles of the north and south forks of the Republican River and the Arikaree River can receive com- pensation for fallowing, or others within the district can receive money for con- verting their fields to native grasslands for 15 years. So far, farmers have agreed to per- manently retire 35 wells. One agreed to retire a well for five years, and three signed up to temporarily curtail use for three years. Those 39 wells service near- ly 5,000 acres. Though these contracts were signed in 2006, some agreements will allow farmers to use wells for one last summer, said Murphy. The district also potentially has 16 one -year leases to take wells temporarily out of use. For some, the programs provide the opportunity to retire wells that are drying up anyway. For others, programs com- pensating them for well curtailment are worth more than crops. 4. Dennis Kaan, CSU agriculture and business management special- ist, crunched the numbers to find out I[l s im I