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Engineers and water experts warn revegetation is inconsistent after water transfers; call for standards and long-term accountability
Summary
Deputy State Engineer Sarah Brucker told lawmakers that Division of Water Resources enforces "dry up" terms but lacks expertise to certify revegetation; independent experts said revegetation often fails, recommended firm establishment criteria, post-establishment management, and withholding new water uses until revegetation is completed.
Water-right transfers and water-conservation transactions that remove irrigation from land often require revegetation to prevent weeds, erosion and community burdens, but witnesses told a legislative committee that practice and enforcement vary widely and frequently fall short.
Sarah Brucker, Deputy State Engineer with the Division of Water Resources, explained the agency's role: the Division evaluates whether "dry up" terms in change-of-use decrees are met to avoid injury to other water-right holders, but it lacks the agronomic expertise to certify that revegetation or noxious-weed management was accomplished. "That should be the responsibility of an entity or office with expertise in revegetation and weed management," she said.
Jerry Knapp, a consultant with long experience in revegetation projects, summarized a multi-county review showing inconsistent standards, weak enforcement and frequent post-transfer failures. He recommended several reforms: require accountability (tie new uses to completed revegetation), include measurable establishment criteria in decrees with evaluation methodology, mandate post-establishment management (he suggested a retained-jurisdiction period of 20 years) and provide technical assistance to rural counties that lack expertise.
Jack Goble, manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, said tens of thousands of irrigated acres in the Lower Valley had been dried up over decades and that revegetation efforts were often an afterthought. Goble and Knapp described a successful Rocky Ford Canal revegetation that was court-approved and implemented with long-term monitoring, and contrasted that with other decrees that lacked standards or funding for follow-through.
Committee members noted the scope of the challenge across basins and urged the development of consistent criteria and funding mechanisms. Officials recommended involving NRCS agronomists or other experts and considering legal mechanisms to ensure purchasers fulfill revegetation obligations before they begin new uses.
