By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun
Agricultural producers, scientists and policymakers from Colorado and Kansas gathered near the Ogallala Aquifer in Burlington on Wednesday to air their concerns and share ideas for how to survive continued drought. But it was hard to escape the Republican River Basin-shaped elephant in the room.
The group convened at the behest of U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who chairs the Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources subcommittee, and Roger Marshall, of Kansas, the ranking Republican member of the subcommittee.
The location was poignant because it’s in a region where farmers over recent years have had to shut down their wells and either switch to dryland farming or grazing or stop all agricultural activity entirely due to shrinking water supplies.