Redlands is a community of Grand Junction, Colorado with about 10,000 residents living between the Colorado River and National Monument. Last Friday, a power generator broke down at Redlands Water and Power Company so about 4,500 irrigated acres will go without water for several days. This made front page local news! They report the golf courses have a backup plan to conserve water, limit players, and hand watering from ponds.
The company currently predicts the water will be back by July 4th and states, "We want to fill the ditches as soon as possible because we are not happy unless everybody has good water."
While this shutdown is temporary, we will be watching to see what impact occurs to the local community including peach orchards and lawns drying out.
The risk of wildfire is very high and, even before the irrigation shutdown, fireworks have been banned to non-professionals for the entire Grand Valley during the July 4th holiday.