{"id":32872,"date":"2023-07-14T22:49:47","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T04:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sens-bennet-moran-and-heinrich-introduce-voluntary-groundwater-conservation-act\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:04:03","slug":"sens-bennet-moran-and-heinrich-introduce-voluntary-groundwater-conservation-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sens-bennet-moran-and-heinrich-introduce-voluntary-groundwater-conservation-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Sens. Bennet, Moran and Heinrich introduce Voluntary Groundwater Conservation Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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A bill introduced by three senators will encourage conservation of groundwater while allowing farmers and ranchers to still farm.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the Voluntary Groundwater Conservation Act, which will allow family farmers and ranchers to have flexibility in protecting groundwater sources while also still producing crops.<\/p>\n

While drought has not been a concern for Southwest Colorado this year, this act could ensure groundwater sources are still available in future years when the drought may return.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado\u2019s family farmers and ranchers face a future that\u2019s going to be a lot hotter and a lot drier \u2013 and they need us to ensure USDA\u2019s conservation programs live up to their potential,\u201d Bennet said in a news release from Tuesday. He also said that the legislation gives farmers new tools to preserve groundwater by voluntarily reducing their use while continuing to farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing drought in Kansas is putting a strain on groundwater supply,\u201d Moran said. \u201cThis legislation would enable farmers and ranchers to join a voluntary water conservation program to leverage their land and water resources with USDA, providing incentives for reducing groundwater use.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire state of Kansas is in drought or at risk of being in drought, with a large portion of the state being in extreme drought as of Thursday, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the West continues to grapple with a historic megadrought and the long-term aridification caused by climate change, we need solutions that will help us sustainably manage our precious and limited groundwater resources,\u201d said Heinrich. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m proud to support this bipartisan bill that will provide farmers and producers with more tools to meet the short-term challenges posed by water scarcity, while protecting the long-term health of our aquifers.\u201d<\/p>\n

America\u2019s groundwater provides drinking water for rural communities and irrigation water supply for farms and ranches across the country. These resources are declining, which could have serious impacts on communities, ecosystem health and economies.<\/p>\n

This bill creates a new easement program at the USDA\u2019s Natural Resource Conservation Service within the Agricultural Conservation Easements Program, according to the news release. This new easement program will \u201cencourage voluntary, compensated reductions in groundwater consumption on agricultural land and advance local, regional, or state groundwater management goals,\u201d the news release said. Additionally, the act would:<\/p>\n

Allow NRCS to reimburse transaction costs that equal up to 5% of the federal share. Advanced payment is required to cover costs.Guarantee flexibility for farmers and ranchers to continue farming and choose how they will limit their water use, as long as they meet the amount they committed to reducing each year.Ensure farmers are compensated fairly through payment based on the market value of the water, rather than a per acre payment.Ensure that easement funds will not be counted toward adjusted gross income. Producers with an adjusted gross income of over $900,000 are eligible for a waiver to participate in the easements.<\/div>\n

\u201cThis groundwater easement tool will allow farmers to be compensated for water reductions without having to completely retire acreage, ensuring the viability of agriculture and rural communities into the future,\u201d said James Henderson, La Jara farmer and rancher and vice president, Colorado Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n

Several organizations across multiple states support this bill, including Colorado Open Lands, which is what this bill was modeled after since the success of signing the first-ever groundwater easement in 2022 for the Rio Grande Basin, the release stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranchers and farmers can volunteer to save groundwater and be compensated for their efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872","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=32872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81955,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872\/revisions\/81955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32872"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}