Lower Arkansas Valley Farmers Sound Alarm Over Urban Water Demand

By Bart Bedsole | KRDO

OTERO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – There is a battle going on right now across the west between cities and farming communities… over water. 

Southeastern Colorado has become a target lately of large thirsty cities, but now many of the folks who live there are voicing concerns about not only the future of their farms but the future of America’s food supply. 

The Hanagan family in Otero County is among them. 

Kim runs the family’s market along Highway 50 most of the time, where her sons frequently arrive with new shipments, while Eric Hanagan manages the farm a few miles south of Swink.

He is the fifth generation in his family to farm their land, which now includes about a thousand acres.

“We were founded about 1909,” he says, “It’s not an easy job, but it’s a fun job.” 

The family’s market sells just about everything that can be grown in the Lower Arkansas Valley, and even a few things like peaches and apples brought in from the Western Slope. 

His farm uses water that flows down a ditch that originates from the Arkansas River.

The Lower Arkansas Valley has been called ‘The Garden Of Eden’ when it comes to growing because the soil is just so fertile. 

“I don’t really see myself doing anything else,” says Hanagan. 

However, he knows that turbulent waters are ahead. 

According to the American Farmland Trust, every day in the United States 2,000 acres of farmland are paved over, fragmented, or converted to uses that jeopardize farming.

Much of that conversion is done in order to move the water rights to growing cities, including Colorado Springs. 

As a result, the overall amount of food produced in the country has declined.

According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, the US has imported more agricultural products than it exported in each of the last three years, and the trend is getting worse. 

“If we become dependent on foreign food, they can bring our country to our knees in a heartbeat,” says Hanagan. 

It’s an issue that Jack Goble has become very personal for Jack Goble, who is both a rancher himself as well as General Manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. 

The LAVWCD represents Pueblo, Otero, Crowley, Bent, and Prowers County, the five counties along the Arkansas River, where agriculture is the foundation of the economy. 

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