{"id":130834,"date":"2026-05-27T21:04:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-leases-surplus-municipal-water-for-agricultural-operations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:04:40","slug":"cortez-leases-surplus-municipal-water-for-agricultural-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-leases-surplus-municipal-water-for-agricultural-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez leases surplus municipal water for agricultural operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Farmers
Farmers north of the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co. district near Dove Creek, supplied by Dolores Water Conservancy District, will need to stretch their water resources as they grapple with deep cuts to their water allocations. (Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As farmers struggle to make do with severe water cuts, Cortez agreed to lease some of its water to the Dolores Water Conservancy District for agricultural operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision reflects the city\u2019s commitment to regional cooperation and its recognition of the vital role of the agricultural community \u2026 in our economic and cultural fabric here in the greater Cortez area,\u201d City Manager Drew Sanders said during the May 12 City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

He proposed leasing 1,000 acre feet of municipal and industrial water to DWCD at $20.32 per acre foot, a measure agreed upon by the council and ratified by the DWCD.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, 1,000 acre feet, that\u2019s really not enough to move the needle much for farmers, but it\u2019s better than nothing,\u201d Sanders said in an interview with The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He added that the city is living well within its means and protecting its own resources by leasing the water which would otherwise go unused.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt our highest use case during the summer, we still do not touch this,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cIt would not be used anyways by us, even given this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ken Curtis, general manager for the DWCD, said that while the impact is marginal, the situation is dire, with all the available water in the Dolores River already portioned out to users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s none left in the Dolores. It\u2019s all spoken for,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

The district is able to supply farmers with less than 15% of their normal water allocation, with the Cortez lease raising the supply about 0.4 inches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re supposed to have 22 inches per season.\u2029And they were at 3.1 (inches). So this raises them a little bit to about 3.5 inches,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

Last year, farmers supplied by DWCD received about half of their allocation, making the shortage highly abnormal, according to Curtis. Options are limited but the DWCD plans to approach Dove Creek, which has a smaller water allocation, with a similar proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to get through a terrible season and hope it snows next winter,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s better than nothing,\u2019 city manager says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[281,28,29,1263,6419,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-130834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-agriculture","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-ranching","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130834"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=130834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}