Session Recap

Agriculture & Water Committee

79th CSG West Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, Utah

Introduction

Legislators from across the West gathered for the CSG West Agriculture & Water Committee session to discuss challenges that are quietly reshaping land and water use in the region. Colorado and Utah have each lost roughly a third of their irrigated farmland in recent decades, and the Colorado River’s operating guidelines expire this year with no seven-state agreement in sight. The session featured Robert Sakata of the Colorado Department of Agriculture; Jim Bowcutt of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food; Hannah Freeze of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office; and Anne Castle of the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado Law School. Together, they detailed how states are responding and where further action is still needed.

Key Takeaways

1. Agriculture is a Major Economic Engine—and It’s Shrinking

Agriculture drives Western state economies: Colorado agriculture stewards 80–90% of the state’s water, supports nearly 922,000 jobs, and creates $197.72 Billion to the state’s economy. In Utah, agriculture generates $98.7 billion in economic output and more than 478,000 jobs.

Farmland continues to disappear: Colorado has lost one-third of its irrigated acreage since 1997, while Utah has lost 20% of its farmland since 1960, including 30% of its irrigated land developed in just the past 30 years.

Financial and personal pressures are mounting: Thin margins are compounding the strain. National farm bankruptcies spiked in early 2026, and farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population, prompting new state behavioral health initiatives in Colorado and Oregon.

“Farming is an occupation of hope.”

– Robert Sakata, Colorado Department of Agriculture

*Robert Sakata, Senior Advisor at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, engages with audience members during the Agriculture & Water Committee session.*

2. States Are Expanding the Toolkit to Keep Land in Agriculture

Conservation easements are important tools for protecting agricultural land for agriculture, but states are exploring innovative approaches.

Leveraging public investment: Utah’s LeRay McAllister program has protected more than 105,000 acres since 1999, turning $29 million in state funds into $201 million through public-private partnerships (a 7-to-1 funding ratio.)

Keeping conservation local: Utah House Bill 237 (2025) allows Utah counties to retain up to $40 million annually in rollback taxes for local farmland conservation.

Protecting working farms: Agricultural Protection Areas shield producers from nuisance complaints, limit the use of eminent domain, and create zoning stability at essentially no cost.

Providing greater flexibility: States are exploring ways to give farmers greater flexibility, including allowing easement value to “trade up” to a new property, easing concerns about permanence, while also offering succession-planning workshops for agricultural producers.

*Committee Co-Chair Utah Senator Ron Winterton leading discussion.*

3. Utah Is Piloting Water Leasing as a New Conservation Tool

House Bill 410 allows farmers to lease agricultural water back to the state through the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office, treating water as a rotational crop rather than a permanent loss.

Implementation questions remain: Questions remain on how to manage leased farmland and guarantee that saved water reaches its intended destination.

Funding the transition: Utah has provided $2.75 million in ongoing funding for the lease program. The 2026 rates range from $427–$501 per acre, based on comparable alfalfa prices.

Designed for flexibility: Water leases are voluntary, temporary, and compensated, with options that can be split or full-season leases. Full-season leases capped at two out of any five years on the same field.

Streamlining water-right approvals: Utah HB 348 fast-tracks water-right change applications that benefit the Great Salt Lake or Colorado River, cutting approval times that once ran up to eight months.

*Committee Co-Chair Colorado Senator Janice Marchman speaking with committee members.*

4. The Colorado River’s Water Levels are Forcing a Reckoning

“There is a math problem in the Colorado River Basin.”

– Anne Castle, Getches-Wilkinson Center

The river is carrying less water: Natural flow has fallen from a 20th-century average of 15.2 million acre-feet (MAF) to 12.1 MAF this century, as low as 9.5–10.2 MAF in the driest stretches.

The structural deficit is growing: The system is running an annual structural deficit of 1.4–3.6 MAF as reservoir buffers are largely exhausted, with agriculture accounting for roughly 74% of direct human water use.

A new operating framework is approaching: After five years of negotiations, the seven basin states have yet to reach their own agreement. A federal Record of Decision is expected in August, setting a 10-year plan with updated guidelines every two years.

Permanent fallowing must be part of the conversation: Speakers argued that some level of equitable permanent fallowing should be considered because temporary water conservation measures alone won’t close the gap between supply and demand.

*Anne Castle, Senior Fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado Law School, discusses the Colorado River Basin.*

Looking Ahead

A federal Record of Decision on Colorado River operations is expected in August 2026, though it may not resolve the underlying disagreements among the seven Colorado River Basin states.

Utah’s HB 410 leasing program was not yet available for the 2026 irrigation season, so its adoption, pricing, and impact will be worth tracking.

States are expected to keep refining easement design, especially around perpetuity flexibility, while continuing to push the U.S. Congress for additional compensated-conservation funding.

*From left: Committee members Hawaii Senator Tim Richards III and Oregon Representative Bobby Levy during discussion.*

Final Reflection

Agriculture remains vital in Western economies despite increasing water scarcity, expanding urban development, and succession challenges. States can implement tools like conservation easements, water leasing, and Agricultural Protection Areas to promote and protect agriculture while also helping meet water usage goals. As Anne Castle noted, if states don’t design their own path forward, the river and the market will do it for them.