Cleave Simpson
General Manager, Rio Grande Water Conservation District and Minority Party Leader, Colorado State Senate
Alamosa, CO
October 24th, 2025
Cleave Simpson, born and raised in the San Luis Valley, is the Minority Party Leader in the Colorado State Senate. He represents the over 700,000 people who live in Colorado district 6 while also serving as General Manager at the Rio Grande Water Conservation District (RGWCD) and working on his own farm. At the RGWCD district office in Alamosa we met with Cleave to learn more about the San Luis Valley’s use of Rio Grande water for agriculture and municipalities.
The San Luis Valley farms over 500,000 acres of land. The main crops grown include alfalfa, hay, potatoes, and barley, all crops that require a great deal of water. As a result, the shallow aquifer that the valley is legally obligated to maintain has been dropping in level for decades. To combat this, RGWCD has been encouraging farmers to grow less water intensive crops, designating allowing water to pass through and percolate into the ground as beneficial use, and using more efficient irrigation systems like sprinklers instead of flooding. Despite the reduction in water usage, the aquifer level continues to decline.
Cleave cares deeply about his community and expressed his worry that people in the area seem not to know much about the severity of the issue. If the aquifer does not return to a sustainable level by 2030, the state will shut off many of the wells that supply the hundreds of farms in the valley. Things seem bleak, so we ask him what gives him hope. “This community, in my entire life, has found ways to come together and solve difficult problems,” he tells us. Educating Senate members from urban communities who know little to nothing about their rural neighbors and informing farmers and locals of the severity of the issue, Cleave continues to fight for the water rights of his constituents and the San Luis Valley, with the faith that they will be able to overcome this obstacle.
By Katherine Finger