Feast and famine

May 4, 2009      The Pueblo Chieftain

Chris Woodka

May 4, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- ------

TAMING THE LAND

This is part of periodic series of weekly articles looking at the development and trends of irrigated agriculture in the valley.

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SEVENTH IN A SERIES

The precious nature of water is best appreciated when too much comes at once, or not at all.

Floods and droughts have taken their toll on Arkansas Valley agriculture from the beginning, wiping out headgates and ditches when the river roared and withering farmland during episodes of drought.

With less than 20 inches of rainfall in most parts of the valley during most years, the addition of irrigation water has been essential for agriculture. While some dryland farmers have reaped rich rewards over the years, irrigated agriculture remains the valley's economic backbone.

When there is too much water, such as during the valleywide floods of 1921 and 1965 and many other more localized events, farmers have faced instant ruin.

During the 1965 flood, famous for its destruction in both Denver and Pueblo, the greater damage came to farms and rural communities in the Lower Arkansas Valley.

In Pueblo County, 8,000 acres of farmland were eaten by the flood, 50 head of

cattle lost and irrigation systems destroyed. Damage was nearly $1 million

The problems were multiplied down the Arkansas River: 700 farms on 60,000 acres were affected in Otero County as headgates were washed out and 1,600 feet of the Catlin Canal was lost; 200 yards of the Fort Lyon disappeared in Bent County; and Prowers County, hardest hit because of swollen tributaries, reported $20 million in damages, much of it to agriculture.

While the cities cleaned up the muck from the flood, the farmers lost at least a growing season. In some cases, the ditches lost to the 1965 flood were never rebuilt, as more high-capacity irrigation wells were coming into production.

After the 1965 flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended a dam on Fountain Creek, where most of the flood waters through Pueblo were generated. After years of discussions, the project was reduced to levees which are designed to protect Pueblo neighborhoods for 100-year floods.

No long-term solution for agricultural flooding was undertaken, however.

The flood of 1921 will always be remembered as a killer storm that reshaped Pueblo forever with levees and a flood control dam, but it also wreaked havoc on the Lower Arkansas Valley. Most of the news stories of the day concentrated on the impact to the city, but the damage to farmers was mighty as well.

In his book, "Watering the Valley," James Earl Sherow detailed the Rocky Ford Ditch Co.'s struggles to rebuild a diversion dam. The effort took three years and $50,000 to complete.

The Catlin Canal suffered about $75,000 in damages when part of its diversion dam washed out, according to an account of the late Frank Milenski.

The Fort Lyon Canal, at the time embroiled in lawsuits as well, suffered more than $100,000 in damages, according to a company history by O. Ray Dodson.

Ditches up and down the valley found themselves in similar straits.

The offices of the Bessemer Irrigating Ditch Co. in Pueblo County were washed out, along with four flumes and two major canal walls. The diversion dam held, but was weakened and had to be replaced two years later. The cost was about $88,000, Sherow noted.

The Federal Land Bank in Wichita Kansas only had $250,000 available for the entire valley, spoken for by then, and the Bessemer turned to a local bank for its loan.

After the 1921 flood the barrier dam constructed on the Arkansas River at Rock Canyon west of Pueblo helped curb future floods on the river before the completion of Pueblo Dam.

Droughts have presented a different set of problems for farmers.

In any year where water is short, junior rights suffer. Under Colorado water law, the oldest beneficial use of water has priority.

There were newspaper reports in the summer of 1934, the driest year of a decade-long drought, of state militia being sent up the Arkansas River to enforce senior rights. The Pueblo Chieftain on July 21, 1934, reported the river stopped flowing entirely.

There were problems on canals too.

"Locks being broken on headgates escalated to 'epidemic' status," Dodson wrote. "Guards for the sole purpose of patrolling headgates was a solution considered."

Even if a farmer had irrigation water, there was no guarantee of making a crop. Dust piled up to the tops of fence posts and choked out anything that grew.

"By 1935, the lack of moisture and dry winds had sealed the land surface to an almost impenetrable crust. As a matter of fact, the earth of the Arkansas Valley was referred to as concrete at times," Dodson wrote.

He quoted Fort Lyon Canal President M. M. Simpson as saying, "It slid off like grease on a hot griddle."

"Finally, in September, after no rain since May, the rains came more frequently. It would have been much better in the middle of summer. Yet, water at any time was greatly appreciated."

Huge clouds of dust routinely covered the plains, largely a product of grasslands that had been tilled for crop production. April 14, 1935, was termed Black Sunday, when the worst of the storms tore across the plains.

On Dec. 12, 1935, a conference on the Dust Bowl began at the Congress Hotel in Pueblo and plans were laid to fight back against dust storms that had eaten 5 million acres of land in five states, according to accounts at the time in The Chieftain. The conference set a course of action that led to the newly formed Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) working with area soil conservation districts to reduce the worst effects of drought the land.

cwoodka@chieftain.com

Newstex ID: 34634707

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