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<br />on! 181 <br /> <br />-Reclamation and DWCD will continue ongoing efforts with other partners in accordance with <br />the Dolores River Instream Flow Partnership Memorandum of Understanding Mission Statement <br />dated May 13,1998. <br /> <br />The 6,000-8,000 acre-feet of water would be used to irrigate approximately 3,000-4,000 acres of <br />land that are now dryland farmed' in the Dove Creek area (in the vicinity of Pleasant View). <br />These lands are adjacent to or in the vicinity of existing irrigated lands; however the DWCD <br />would need to extend existing laterals or construct additional laterals and pumping stations to <br />serve the new land. Loans from the State of Colorado to DWCD would assist in this effort. <br /> <br />A draft of the Carriage Contract can be found in Attachment A. <br /> <br />No Action Alternative <br /> <br />Under the No Action Alternative, the contract would not be signed and the subject water would <br />not be carried in Reclamation-owned canals. MVIC, because of the high value of water in the <br />area, would be expected to sell the water shares to other water users adjacent to MVIC canals for <br />irrigation; however, the exact outcome cannot be predicted. <br /> <br />The OWeD has indicated that, without a Carriage Contract, it would still pursue acquiring the <br />water and follow one of several options available. The fust and most desirable option according <br />to the DWCD would be to deliver water to presently unirrigated lands west of Arriola, Colorado <br />without the use of Federal canals. This would be viewed by Reclamation as no different than one <br />, farmer giving up their Class B MVIC shares and another farmer buying these shares and applying <br />water to a different property. There is no Federal action when that type of change occurs and <br />there would be no Federal action if DWCD used the water on lands west of Arriola by utilizing <br />MVIC's existing private facilities. <br /> <br />IfDWCD determined that it would be too expensive to use MVIC's existing private facilities to <br />deliver water to other lands, due to the high value of water in the Montezuma Valley, it is <br />expected, as mentioned above, that MVIC would sell the available Class B shares to other private <br />entities to use for irrigation on lands classified as irrigable by Reclamation and within the <br />boundaries of the Dolores Project. <br /> <br />More information on these options is contained in Response 5 in the eonsultation and <br />Coordination section of this EA. <br /> <br />IDryland farm lands are lands, primarily growing pinto beans, wheat, and alfalfa, that are <br />cultivated but do not receive irrigation water. <br /> <br />6 <br />