Kevin Karney held up evidence of the problem in his own backyard — the coating on his hands after dipping them in his well water.
“I’m going to show you how much iron we have in our water here,” Karney said during a spring day in March. “Yep, totally red.”
Karney, a rancher in southeastern Colorado, built an elaborate filtration setup behind his home to make his water drinkable. It pulls from a deep aquifer and runs through multiple stages — a cistern, filters, a softener and a reverse osmosis unit — before reaching his faucets.
Even with that system, the water requires constant attention.
Radionuclides — uranium and radium — can attach to iron particles in the water, making them harder to remove. Long-term exposure to these radioactive elements has been linked to cancer and other health risks.
Ryan Warner/CPR NewsRancher Kevin Karney, of La Junta, must filter out iron and radionuclides from his well water. March 24, 2026.
“All that iron just collects on everything that’s brass there,” Karney said. “You have to use brass fittings because unless it’s brass or stainless steel galvanized stuff, this water will just eat it up.”
His setup has protected his family from contaminants in groundwater that serves much of the Lower Arkansas Valley. But it comes at a cost, and one many neighbors can’t afford.
“There are individuals that are on a rural system … that they then get notices that tells ’em that their water is not safe to drink,” Karney said. “So a lot of them … you’ll see just like you have here, bottled water.”
Across communities like La Junta, access to safe drinking water remains uneven. It’s a patchwork of personal fixes, bottled water and uncertainty, he said.
Karney acknowledged that his system requires a significant investment and is not within everybody’s reach.
That gap, he said, explained why he continues to advocate for the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a decades-long effort to deliver treated water from Pueblo Reservoir to communities across southeastern Colorado.
Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District ArchivesConstruction of the dam at Lake Pueblo, as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project signed into law in 1962.
“That’s why the conduit is so important,” Karney said.
The region’s economy depends on agriculture, which thrives in the valley’s climate with hot days and cool nights.
“That’s what makes the brix, the sugar content, go way high in the produce,” Karney said. “There’s a lot of peppers and cantaloupe and melons and onions and everything that (is) grown here in the lower Arkansas Valley … they’re the best in the country,” Karney said.
While irrigation supports crops, drinking water poses a different challenge that has recently faced another setback.
A federal bill tied to the conduit’s financing was vetoed in December, delaying progress and raising new uncertainty.
Courtesy Chris WoodkaContractors install the Arkansas Valley Conduit east of Pueblo.
For Karney, the path forward remains clear.
“It means then we just have to continue our efforts to get the legislation passed,” he said.
A former Otero County commissioner and current board member of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Karney avoided speculating on the politics behind the decision. But he remained optimistic that the project would get done in his lifetime.
“I think we’ll have it successful and completed here in the next 10 to 12 years,” Karney said. “We are playing the long game.”
His perspective comes from years of experience with water challenges in the Arkansas River Basin. The shortages and competing demands have shaped daily life in southeastern Colorado since before President John F. Kennedy authorized the project in 1962.
And for Karney, the stakes extended far beyond his own ranch.
“Without water, we have nothing,” he said. “For the future of the Arkansas Valley and for residents here, we have to have water of quality to drink … and without it, we don’t stand a chance.”
Ryan Warner/CPR NewsRancher Kevin Karney, of La Junta, at his pump house. March 24, 2026.