Wyoming Farmers Earn Cash Diverting Irrigation Water To Oil Rigs

Ranching and farming in the far southeast of Wyoming is an unassuming affair, completely dependent on the sparse amount of rainfall in the region and whatever volume of water an electric pump can coax from the shallow aquifers below. Three “Groundwater Control Areas” have been in place here for many years, established by the state due to rapidly declining groundwater levels. Irrigators reflexively object when anyone proposes drilling a new water well in the region because most everyone agrees that freshwater aquifers here are over–appropriated. Yet instead of using the family’s adjudicated water right to irrigate his fields nine miles north of Burns next year, King plans to sell a good portion of the water to oil companies. “Last summer I didn’t irrigate. So I’m willing to quit irrigating again for this next year or two and sell as much water as I can,” said King. Electric utility rates are on the rise, narrowing the profit margin for crop irrigation. King figures he can make a heck of a lot more money by selling water for 35 cents per barrel – at least for a few years while the oil industry drills exploratory wells into the Niobrara oil formation, which many people expect to be the source of major new oil production in Wyoming. Thirty-five cents per barrel is 10-times what King might earn off his water when he uses it for irrigation. King said it would be nice to earn some extra money to pay off debt and buy a new truck. And King isn’t the only one hoping to cut back on crop irrigation to make money in the oil industry. Dozens of irrigators in southeast Wyoming are vying to sell their water to oil drillers. In recent months, the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office has approved 40 “temporary water use agreements,” which are required to divert irrigation water to another use. More than a dozen applications still await approval. “I heard one guy in Goshen County is making $1,600 a week selling his water,” King said...more