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, , ' the State Assembly established the Rio Grande Water Conservation District. 'The District is a duly constituted entity of local government. Its board consists of members appointed by the commissioners of each Colorado county which contributes water to the Rio Grande (except for Costilla County which chose not to participate). Its job is to promote water resource development within the San Luis Valley, determine water policy, own water, coordinate legal and engineering matters affecting the San Luis Valley, and assist in developing projects with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Federal Government. The District is the primary sponsor of the San Luis Valley Project - Closed Basin Division (Closed Basin Project) which the Bureau i's now in the process of constructing. 'The Bureau's involvement is not in the nature of a program imposed f;rom "above" by the Government. The Bureau acts as an engineering firm providing planning, design, and construction expertise for water projects which would be difficult or impossible for the private sector to accomplish by itself. Typically, Bureau projects are sponsored by local organizations (irrigation districts and/or municipalities). Most of the cost of a project is repaid directly to the U.S. Treasury by the sponsors and beneficiaries through a long-term repayment contract. However, Valley residents will not have to repay the costs of building the Closed Basin Project directly. This is because one of the needs to which the Project is a response is to provide water to meet a national obligation (the Treaty with Mexico). The District is the Project's local sponsor. The Project is a response to the Valley's need to develop a reliable source of water which: (1) can serve to keep the Valley unencumbered by downstream lawsuits and (2) be developed without significantly disturbing the existing local pattern of water use. The Project (which is described more fully in the following section) is designed to achieve a delivery of about 104,000 acre-feet of water annually. The Project is being built in stages over the course of the next 10 years. Initial deliveries will be less than the above amount. Every drop of water delivered to the river will help, however. Each drop will provide the Valley with that much more maneuvering room to develop a regular valley-wide system of water allocation which is fair, recognizes established historic patterns of use, allows room for growth, and gets the Valley out of the yearly scramble and uncertainty about meeting the Compact. It is important to remember that all the Bureau is respon- sible for is building the Project (subject to the constraints discussed below) and putting the water in the river. What will be done with the water once it gets there and what kind of a Valley-wide system of water allocation might be developed as a result of the Valley having more water to work with are not deci- sions the Bureau is even allowed to make. These decisions will be made by the State of Colorado and local San Luis Valley organizations. 5 {,C;\78G