Farmers in New Mexico reject water use

Aug 25, 2015

Decision comes after a Colorado sludge spill

In order to keep crops and farmland safe from contamination, Navajo farmers near the San Juan River have voted to keep irrigation canals closed for a year after a spill of toxic substances from a Colorado gold mine.

More than 100 farmers from Shiprock, New Mexico, voted unanimously to close the canals. They understand it’s a tough, but necessary decision as it will result in the loss of crops.

Shiprock Chapter President, Duane “Chilli” Yazzie said the decision will help keep the soil uncontaminated and he used the old adage of better safe than sorry in an interview with The Associated Press.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Nation EPA have both said the water is safe for irrigation based on tests of the water’s surface.

The spill happened on August 5^th, 2015 at the Gold King Mine when workers accidentally destroyed a dam holding back a pond. Doing so resulted in about three million gallons of polluted water filled with heavy metals, arsenic and other waste into Cement Creek, a tributary of Colorado’s Animas River.

The Environmental Protection Agency did not disclose the spill to Colorado and New Mexico until the next day.

"I am furious that the U.S. EPA has placed the Navajo Nation into this position," Tribal President Russell Begaye said in a news release. "Our farms will not last much longer without water, and our resources are depleting."

Join the conversation and tell us your thoughts about the decision to close irrigation canals for a year.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.