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000494 WATER CHARGES For the "Full Service" Lands INTRODUCTION Naturally, the most asked question about the project is "What is the water charge going to be"??? There are four charges included in the total water assessment. Three of those charges (the construction, the account fee and the mill levy) were set prior to the time the local people voted on the project in February 1977. Those three will remain the same for the fifty-year payout of the project. The fourth charge is the operation & maintenance fee and will vary from year to year. At the time of the 1977 election, the total of the four charges was estimated, in terms of 1977 dollars, to be $19 to $20 per acre. The following is a charge by charge explanation. CONSTRUCTION CHARGE $1.35/AF = $2.65/acre The construction charge is the farmers' share of cost of construction of the McPhee Dam, Great Cut Dike and Pump Plant, Dove Creek and South Canals, the Pump Plants and Underground Lateral Systems for the 7 blocks of land in the "full service" area, and the administrative and O&M facilities and equipment. This charge is based on "the farmers ability to pay" which is a formula the Bureau of Reclamation went through prior to the fee being established. The fee itself amounts to only 3 or 4 percent of agriculture's actual share of the cost. The balance is paid for by electric power revenues from the Upper Colorado River Storage Project (Glen Canyon, Curecanti and Flaming Gorge). The duration of this charge is fifty years, beginning at the end of the "development block". ACCOUNT FEE $50 / individual landowner The basis for this charge is that bookkeeping and some administrative costs are the same for the individual that has a 20-acre allotment, as it is for the one that has a 960-acre allotment. The fee begins at the start of the development block. It will certainly last during the fifty-year repayment schedule and probably for the life of the project. l;~