The Mancos Water Conservancy District board is continuing research on obtaining title transfer of irrigation facilities from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

At a public meeting last week, the board and 22 audience members heard from two out-of-state irrigation managers who benefited from title transfer.

"We're interested in exploring title transfer and have met with the BOR about it," said district superintendent Gary Kennedy. "Today is another step in that exploration process."

Guest speakers Gary Esslinger, manager for the Elephant Butte Irrigation District in New Mexico, along with Tom Knutson, retired GM of the Farwell Irrigation District, in Nebraska, reported that the title process was time consuming and not easy, but worth it in the end for their districts.

"It gave the farmers more independence and reduced the red tape and bureaucracy," Esslinger said. "Farmers like it because they have a direct line to me and less red tape to get their water when they want it."

Esslinger manages water out of Elephant Butte Reservoir in southern New Mexico on the Rio Grande River.

In the 1970s farmers disgruntled with the federal bureaucracy of the BOR campaigned to take over title to gain more local control, he said.

"They were not happy with how the BOR was maintaining the system, structures were falling apart," he said. "We were a smaller irrigation project, and they were spending time on the bigger projects."

Eventually, a rider attached to a 1995 Omnibus Bill gave transfer of canals, laterals, and ditches from the BOR to district control. Because they owned the land, the district was able to collect fees charged to utilities and communication companies crossing their land.

Tom Knutson is the retired manager for the Farwell Irrigation District in Nebraska, which also was successful in obtaining title from the BOR.

"It was a lot of political work, stress, and lobbying," he said. "I spend eight years traveling back and forth to D.C. "

He also praised the benefits of title transfer, and said it was worth the $1 million in costs.

The investment paid off because owning the dam and delivery systems allowed the district to secure better prices for upgrades and maintenance without a lot of studies.

"BOR was estimating a tremendous amount of money (for repairs) and we could never get them to fix it the diversion dam the way we wanted," Knutson said. "We rehabbed the dam for $1.5 million less than BOR estimates."

He said title ownership of facilities allowed the district to short cut the system and avoid numerous studies required under federal law.

"Sometimes in life, farmers have to take hold of what needs to be done," Knutson said. "The BOR did a great job building the irrigation projects, and the good local BOR people want to get things done, but in my opinion it is the policy makers above them that muck up the system."

The Mancos Water Conservancy district consists of Jackson Gulch Reservoir, the dam, and canal system, which are owned by the BOR.

The BOR currently budgets $160,000 a year to manage the irrigation project. The district believes that they could do the work the bureau does for $20,000 to $40,000 because the district wouldn't have as much administration overhead.

"We'll continue to look to see if title transfer is feasible, but not go too fast, and have a lot of public involvement," Kennedy said.

Nationwide, 27 water projects have been fully transferred from the federal government to a local organization.

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com