Dear editor:

Mr. Stevens, I am a farmer in the Powell area, also on the Heart Mt. Irrigation board, and on the board of the Wyoming Association of Irrigation Districts. Maybe you are not aware of the project’s purpose? The irrigation projects were built across the West approximately 100 years ago. They were built by the United States government along with the Bureau of Reclamation. Our contract with the U.S. government, and as a transferred works partner of the Bureau of Reclamation, directly states: Their purpose is “for production agriculture, to feed the persons of the United States." Are you in production agriculture? A quote from one of the former directors of Reclamation, Wyoming office said, “these projects are for production agriculture, not a horse and 10 acres." The Bureau of Reclamation does not even recognize parcels under 40 acres as a farm. Also, the bureau tells us we can charge small landowners a higher per acre fee than production agriculture. You are lucky to be getting water at the same rate.

Maybe I should back up, You might be a farmer? If you are you must file a Schedule F income tax return along with your 1040 form. All farmers file a Schedule F. You should bring this to the office and show them you are a farmer. And if you are a farmer, you must have a quarantine release from Weed and Pest. You need to go to the Weed and Pest and apply for one.  

At Heart Mt. we had to hire extra help in the office to handle the subdivisions. The cause of this is the steady stream of visits or phone calls to the district complaining about not getting enough water or being flooded out from a neighbor, etc … This costs every acre, every person, and an additional $2 per acre because of the extra personnel. The farmer’s taxes by far make up the majority of repayments to the loans owed to the federal government, which keeps water flowing to your property. Once again, if you are not in production agriculture, you are lucky to have project water.  

Brian Duyck

Powell