Local ranchers’ ditch water is cut off

Seven ranching families in the beautiful South Cow Creek Valley east of Millville were among those recently notified by the State Water Resources Control Board that they were to immediately stop diverting water from the creek into the Abbott Ditch, which provides irrigation water for their fields and drinking water for their livestock. The Abbott Ditch owners have pre-1914 water rights, which up until now, have protected them from state-ordered water use curtailments, but the letter from the Control Board said, “due to the ongoing drought conditions, there is insufficient water in the system to service their claims of right.” Rancher Sandee Monroe of the Farrell Ranch said she had anticipated that the creek would go dry soon, but had not anticipated that the state would totally curtail their diversion. “The creek is just a trickle now, but it was enough to water our livestock. Now we can’t even divert that much. We’ll have to figure out how to water our cattle and horses.” She also explained that in other parts of the state many ranchers ordered to curtail their surface water pumping could just dig wells, but those in the South Cow Creek Valley could not because of the underground saltwater layer in the Millville Area...more