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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ~ , I Mr. William E. Green March 1 1, 1997 Page 5 wells. This equates to approximately $4.06 per acre-foot for the mainstem irrigation pumping. Table 5 projects" LAWMA's income, operating expenses, and debt service during 1997 through 2038. The debt service on the existing $3.75 million loan was figured at 3 percent interest over a period of 40 years with lower payments during the initial 10 years. The debt service on the new $2.24 million loan was figured at 2 percent interest over a period of 40 years with lower payments during the initial 10 years. As shown in the table, LAWMA's ongoing operating, engineering, and legal expenses should range from $268,000 in 1997 to around $ 175,000 beginning in 2008 after the augmentation program is operating. A total of $410,000 will need to be generated from dues during 1999-2007 and $435,000 during 2008-2038. Under LAWMA's current dues schedule, approximately $37,000 will be generated from the municipal and commercial and post- 1985 users' wells, and $ 15,000 will be generated by the tributary irrigation wells, leaving $358,000 to be generated by the mainstem irrigation wells during 1999-2007. Thus, the revenue that LAWMA will need to generate from the mainstem irrigation wells will have to average approximately $5.30 per acre-foot of pumping during 1999-2007 and $5.67 after 2007. The costs to LA WMA I S members of energy for pumping were estimated in previous feasibility studies from average power coefficients measured in 1 993 and 1994 and average charges made by the Southeastern Colorado Power Association (SECPA) and Lamar Ught and Power (LLP) in 1994. The power coefficients determined for LAWMA members in 1993 and 1994 averaged 139 kwh/ac-ft; the range in power coefficients was from 38 to ,over 649 kwh/ac-ft. The charges by SECPA and LLP in 1994 averaged 6.6 cents/kwh and 7.8 cents/kwh, respectively. These were total charges - they include not only the kwh charges, but also all facilities and hook-up charges. The SECPA has increased its rates by an average of approximately 6.5 percent in 1997, producing in an average cost of 7.0 cents/kwh. A representative unit cost of 7.4 cems/kwh was used in this analysis. Figured this way, the average energy cost was $10.29 per acre-foot of pumping, but the range was from $2.81 to $48.03 per acre-foot of pumping. It should be emphasized here that the energy costs to many individual members exceed this average value substantially. The power coefficients exceeded 183 kwh/ac-ft at 25 percent of the irrigation wells and 310 kwh/ac-ft at 1 0 percent of the irrigation wells. The energy costs for these groups of irrigation wells are at least $13.54 and $22.94 per acre-foot of pumping, respectively. Additionally, some pumps are powered with other energy sources, which probably are more expensive than electricity. The cost to LA WMA' s members of replacing the wells and pumping equipment were estimated by assuming that they need to be replaced every 30 years at a cost of $30,000 per well. Since LA WMA' s members presently operate 449 irrigation wells in the mainstem area, and 375 of these irrigation wells are presently active, an average of 12.5 irrigation wells would need to be replaced each year. Using a unit cost of $30,000 with this number of irrigation wells, the total annual cost becomes $375,000. This total annual cost adds approximately $5.56 to each acre-foot of pumped water when spread over 67,500 acre-feet of annual pumping. This value has. been increased to $6.00 per acre-foot to cover the additional annual maintenance expenses.