Colorado Corn

Others, like Brett Rutledge, remain skeptical about ethanol, or what they call the "dot-corn" rush. They compare it with the "dot-com" boom and bust.

Today's corn boom is far from bust, even as a national debate plays out over the long-term effectiveness of ethanol as a motor fuel.

Even so, dark clouds of uncertainty are gathering, pushing shadows over Yuma County's summer of prosperity.

At issue is the heavily litigated Republican River and its connection to the High Plains Aquifer, which underlies all of Yuma County, the eastern border of Colorado and large swaths of Kansas and Nebraska, among other places.

Yuma irrigation wells are sunk into the aquifer, an underground bowl that has collected fresh water over millions of years. The rate of the aquifer's depletion is one issue, but the most immediate is legal wrangling over the river that could result in hundreds of wells being shut down.

"The threat is very serious, and I think most farmers understand that," said Ken Knox, Colorado's chief deputy state engineer. "I literally pray that we do manage the situation and not have to shut down thousands of wells. The effect would be devastating to Colorado."

The Republican is a meandering, silty creek, often bordered by water-sucking cottonwood trees, as it flows through Yuma County. The problem is that the river flow is not meeting Colorado's legal obligations to Kansas under a three-state compact negotiated 65 years ago.

Colorado blames the shortfall on drought, while Kansas points to well-pumping on the aquifer, saying that the practice diminishes the river's ability to replenish itself.

Shutting wells and retiring thousands of irrigated acres, mostly under corn production, would mean millions of dollars in losses to Yuma County.

Naturally, folks here are upset.

"Shutting off wells is a quick fix and not a long-term solution," warned George Seward, an outspoken farmer in Yuma, who also owns the town's only movie theater. "The impact is going to be huge and devastating to our community. The state is not thinking out of the box."