 I made 13 times more money in one summer than I had the previous summer. It's black and white. It's money in your pocket. The payments are part of a years-long experiment, a way for the government to see if it works to pay farmers and ranchers to hit pause on using water from the overtaxed river. Elizabeth Cobley researches water policy at the University of Nevada, Reno. She says money used for the program could be spent differently.