"You either had 8 feet of mud deposited on your land or from 2 to 3 inches on it," said Pace. "Ranchers had to either scrape it off or till it back in."

Hanksville Canal Company president Ronnie Albrecht is a cattle rancher whose family has been working the land there for generations. He farms 40 acres of his grandfather's land and another 70 acres for other landowners, in addition to raising a herd of up to 300 head of cattle.

"The majority of town depends on the irrigation system," said Albrecht of Hanksville's 250 residents. "Without it, there's no point in us being here. We'd have to try and move on, but we don't want to do that."

Caineville Canal Company president John Jackson, who owns 185 head of cattle, said the floods washed out miles of fencing, plugged irrigation pipes and gobbled up a dirt diversion dam in his town. Without the irrigation system, he said, residents there would also have to move or find another way to make a living, which could prove difficult in rural Wayne County.

"If I had to go a year without any crops, I'd be out of business," said Jackson.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com