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!$h "r ir' ',. a- - !:> [ 5 , .~ ", ,~' ~-:--."!' ;"\ <'l'. '~.., ~ . I The Grral Sand nunes National Mllnunlt'nl, Color..do SUBSCRIBE TO HIGH COUNTRY NEWS TO GET BOTH NEWS AND TEXTURE -------------------------------, NAME I .,.. I ADDRESS I I I I I I I I ZIP em ,\TATE JI8Jyraf for finl-liml' s/uJenl subscriptions S24tyt'ar for In,lj...jJUilh tlfuJ puMjj~ or J"cl!oolli/lraries SJ41ytaf for busjntSlts. govf'fnmenl agolch'J Of olha j'l5l;tulions }.fiJi/,o: lieN. 8o~ /(j)(), PIl!Jn;/l, co 8/.J:!8 I --------------------------------- ... uurcau. Dave Robhins. the chair of the Colorado Hiver Il;l~in Salinity Conuol Forum. which rcprCS{'nls the slates' interests in Ih..: IHogrilffi, says Ihe impact of land rctircnll'nt would spread rar beyond salinity, and could affect sUIC and counly 1..;1,," ba.<;cs, school d15' lrielS and small towns throughout the basin, p,articularly in the upper basin. "The fabric of two-thirds of our stale is based on small agricultural communities," Rohbins says. (Those communities! raise crops like hay and alfalfa that are not such high value, but the towns are very important to Colorado." Given the Cosls of the Salinity ContlOl Program and Ihe uncenainty of it.s success, the iJca of land retirement may be worth reconsidering. In Wyoming, the idea came up as an aller- nalive in the Soil Conservation Service's Big SanJy Project EIS. Farms in that area - the Eden Valley along the Green River in Southwestern Wyoming - were created by a Bureau of Reclamation water project that today seems cconlHnically absurd. A short growing season and poor soils make the Eden Valley a miserable place 10 farm. When the SCS presented 12 olltions for salinity control, 87 per- cent of the val1cy's farmers voted to accept either land or irrigation retire- mem (/leN, 11/10186). Retiring the land would have reduced salt levels in Ihe Colorado by as much as 133,000 ton$ per year. Despite the willingness of the fanners to sell, the option was y,Ulkcd frum the filial EIS. Dan Luecke, who heads the Ellvironmclltal ()cfcn~ Fund uffice in nouhkr, COI\l., says, "When the drah H'port C<tllIC Ollt the gov{'rnor ol <. '^' .., Wyoming [Ed Herschler) went right through the ceiling... When you lake land out of production whal is reall)' out of production is your wall~r. 'lllclI it flows down river 10 the lower basin stales and ever)'one knows that is heres)'." The ahemative selected instead - a mix of pipelines, pumps and sprinkler irrigation S)'SICOlS - will remove kss Ihan half the salt and cost about $8.S million, between twO and three times Ihe cost of land retiremenl. The SCS finall)' began lIlt work. al Big Sand)' in 1988, after waiting several years for funds. David GetdIC!!. a law professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, wallis that evenluall)' Ihe salt problem will calch ur 10 the upper ba...in. "In Ihe long run the SlfLIClurJI solutiolls aren't going 10 he alk41l<lle. Sumething else is guing to h;.lve tn be Ilulle .\11\1 th:lt'S wh)' closing do.....n larm liUlds in the upper h<lsin is illevililblc." -Sll'Vf'I/il1dmul1I