Three years after the flames of the 2012 Weber Fire were extinguished, erosion from the burn area continues to affect nearby farms.

Farmers and ranchers of lower Weber Canyon rely on the Weber Ditch. During heavy rains, the ditch fills with mud and floods adjacent roads.

“Now, every time it rains, we have to take time to clean out the ditches,” said farmer Dee Graf. “Water is being lost down the road.”

To solve the problem, farmers teamed up with the National Resource Conservation Service and the Mancos Soil Conservation District to replace the Weber Ditch with a pipeline with modern turnouts for water users.

NRCS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is putting about $250,000 toward the project, said Joel Lee, NRCS district conservationist.

Thirteen farmers who rely on the ditch are contributing a 25 to 50 percent match.

Patrick Clements, a Mancos soil conservation technician, has been drawing up plans for the project, which is expected to be installed this fall after the farming season.

“It’s a big project,” he said. “We’re converting about 7,000 feet of ditch to pipeline to solve the sediment problem. Water delivery will be more efficient with less evaporation.”

Converting ditches to pipelines is also effective salinity control, Clements said. Beside all the mud in the ditch, lower Weber Canyon has also seen boulders from the burn scar roll onto the road and hay farms.

The 2012 Weber Fire scorched 10,133 acres south of Mancos and cost $5.8 million to put out. It was started by a juvenile.

Costs from the fire continue, and the new pipeline is part of the ongoing recovery.

“It’s still not cheap to put in the pipeline, but without the NRCS program it would have been too expensive,” Graf said. “The cost-share made it feasible.”

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com