END TIMES WEATHER:Water crisis becomes urgent amid dry skies, wells

FORT MORGAN - Nearly half the powerful irrigation wells that watered farmlands in the South Platte River Basin are now idle, silenced by drought, strict new water laws and a fierce battle for water now entering its fifth year.Since the drought struck in 2002, 4,000 of 9,000 wells have stopped pumping on this stretch of the eastern plains, leaving barren thousands of acres of corn and sugar beet fields.Morgan County assessor Bob Wooldridge estimates his corner of farm country has lost about $32 million in annual cash flow. Property values-on land that can no longer be irrigated-have dropped 12.5 percent and are likely to go much lower as more land loses its irrigated classification.Jeff Bieber, a tractor dealer in Fort Morgan, estimates he's lost more than $1 million in revenue each of the past three years, in part because of the well shutdowns."It's really slowed down out here," Wooldridge said. "We're going to be lucky to hold our own."Similar scenarios are playing out in other Western states, including Idaho, where population growth and rising water use are forcing strict river management and better integration of underground and surface supplies.Along the South Platte, fast-growing cities have spent millions of dollars in court to force farmers to comply with new laws.
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As in the days of Noah....