BOARD00077 ‎(3)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/13/2006
• Description: Arkansas and South Platte Basins - Alternative Agriculture Water Transfers and Sustainability Project ‎(s)‎
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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I n general in those areas of the state whe.re agricultural land is urbanizing there is less
concern over agricultural transfers and l~ss impact (real and perceived) to the local
community. In more rural areas the con~ern and issues are much greater.

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There are many factors affecting the viaqility of agriculture including: aging
demographics of the current farm and ral~ching community and the failure to attract
"young people" to this employment sector; the effects of pricing of commodities;
di fticulty identifying lucrative markets; l!ick of stable water supply which increases risk of
crop and/or business failure; added complexities of farming and ranching in urbanizing
are_as. While tJ1e CWCB canD.QlJ1dd[e_s.staJl these fgcto~there appears to he opportunities
to address water supply and issues associ'ated with urbanization.

To help support the sustainability of agriculture and maintain the health of Colorado's
agricultural economy, associated communities, and the environment, and to assist those
farmers and ranches that want to stay in business; steps must be taken to implement larger
scare alkrnative to permanent diy-up. The SWSI Phase 2 TRThas-identifiecfseveral-
alternatives to permanent dry-up including:

. interruptible supply agreements
. long-term agricultural land fallowing
. water banks
. reduced agricultural consumptive use thorough efficiency or cropping while
maintaining historic return flows
. purchase by end users with leaseback under defined conditions.

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To date the alternatives described above l).ave not been implemented to the same degree as
permanent transfers. While there are a mimber of potential reasons for this trend, overall
it appears to be related to both administrative and cost issues. This proposed non-
reimbursable investment is intended to help address these issues.

Discussion

Through the S WSI Phase 2 TR T staff has learned that the complexities of water transfers
can not be addressed in a "one size fits all" manner nor can all the nuances of the issues be
understood for each community and/or each transaction. For this reason, this non-
reimbursable is designed to capitalize on the creativity of the water community while
advancing the alternatives to permanent dry-up from the "academic" to implementation
level.

To accomplish this goal staff is proposing a competitive grant program which would be
designed to fund those proposals that the CWeB Board would determine provide the
greatest benefit to the state consistent with CWCB policies. Funding for the program
would be $1.5 million which would be available to fund one or more projects in both the
Arkansas and South Platte Basins.

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FhJ"-1d Pr"Ht-'cliun .. \tV~)kr Supply PILll1t,ling ~lnd Finill1ce. Slre~lnl ~lnd L.lke Prolccliol1
Water Supply Protection. <Conservation and Drought Planning