Colorado: Planned and Active Ethanol Plants in Ogallala Aquifer
Report overview | State maps: Colorado | Kansas | Nebraska | New Mexico | Oklahoma | Texas
Map 1. Declining Water Table
Potential effect: Already scarce water supplies become scarcer
With an expected annual output of 40 million gallons of ethanol, the new Yuma plant's corn-to-fuel processing could draw 160 million gallons of water per year. Competition for water resources is growing in eastern Colorado, as water demands from the urbanizing Front Range rise and Colorado is pressed to cut water use as part of the
Republican River Compact. The region is already seeing voluntary and involuntary irrigation well shutdowns and agricultural water rights being purchased and transferred to urban agencies (see Map 1).
Map 2. Conservation Reserve Program: Land Retired from Use
Potential effect: Loss of critical habitat
In addition, eastern Colorado is home to some critical remnants of grassland habitat for a number of at-risk species. Rising demand for corn may increase pressure to convert restored and native prairie tracts to crop production, threatening the habitat of grassland wildlife (see Maps 2 and 3).
Map 3. Important Native Grasslands of the Central Shortgrass Prairie
Sources
CRP data: Conservation Programs, Farm Service Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Ethanol plant location data: Earth Policy Institute. 2006. Data files for distillery demand for grain to fuel cars vastly understated.
Native grasslands data: Neely, B., et al. 2006. Central Shortgrass Prairie Ecoregional Assessment and Partnership Initiative. The Nature Conservancy of Colorado and the Shortgrass Prairie Partnership.
Ogallala depletion data: Fischer, B. C., and V. L. McGuire. 1999. Digital data set of water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, 1980 to 1996. Lincoln, NE: U.S. Geological Survey.
