Farmers in the fight of our lives over water usage
By Amy Nay
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AMALGA, Utah (KSTU) — Measures proposed during the current Utah legislative session could directly affect local farmers whose number one resource is water, with some saying their voices are often left out of the conversation.
From his home in Amalga, Utah, named after the Amalgamated Sugar Company that opened a factory there more than a century ago in the Cache Valley, Tyler Bentley shared how he moved away to farm elsewhere in Utah before returning to help save what he fears is a losing venture in this multi-generational business.
“This last year is the worst year that we’ve ever had,” Bentley shared.
Those numbers, Bentley said, are due to high inflation costs, rising insurance rates and a reliance on a resource he fears could be taken away, like the water in a spillway that he says will funnel back into the Bear River and eventually the Great Salt Lake.
“Part of the reason we have these spillways is that when the water comes, if we don’t have [spillways], the water could overflow and wash out the canal,” Bentley explained.
Bentley added how their water usage is strictly monitored, but that return water is never figured back into the equation, and even more of an issue he says is nearby development and their secondary water usage.
“There’s no water meters on the secondary water systems clear from Smithfield to Provo and nobody understands … a lawn uses double the water of any crop grown,” he said.
Bentley’s MRT Farms grows alfalfa, silage, corn, barley, and wheat, but said they’re being asked to shift what they do to grow more water-wise crops.
“Well, we can grow it, but who’s going to buy it?” asked Bentley, “and if we have to pay 50 cents or a dollar a bushel out of our pocket to have it hauled somewhere, we’re losing money.
“We can’t stay in business if we’re constantly losing money!”
Many of Bentley’s fellow farmers, he says, are in the fight of their lives to stay afloat.
“Every year, I have to pay my local canal company a water assessment for my right to use the water. It’s never free for the farmer,” he said.
Bentley is challenging state legislators to come to see the issue for themselves before enacting measures he believes could cause him and many others to lose the family farm.
“We kind of a get the black eye from everybody and it’s just really frustrating for us.”
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