C150150 Feasibility Study

• Contract/PO #: C150150
• Contractor Name: Lower Arkansas Water Management Association
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 67
• County: Bent
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

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VII. Conclusions

A. For its 2003 Arkansas River Use Rules replacement plan LA WMA included 533
wells, of which 459 are located in the mainstem area and 74 are located in tributary
areas. LA WMA's primary service area is the Arkansas River mainstem area below
John Martin Reservoir, although it has members in the Big Sandy and Two Butte
Creek basins and a few members above John Martin Reservoir.

B. The mainstem irrigation pumping averaged 59,769 acre-feet annually from 1997
through 2002, and ranged from 75,465 acre-feet in 1997 to 42,380 acre-feet in 1999.
For planning purposes it is expected that LA WMA' s mainstem irrigation pumping will
average about 59,703 acre-feet annually.

C. LA WMA' s replacement water supplies currently yield approximately 15,923 acre-feet
or .86 acre-feet per share on an average annual basis and 6,151 acre-feet or .33 acre- .
feet per share on a firm basis. The average yield of LA WMA' s portfolio with one-half
of the Keesee water rights would be 16,680 acre-feet or .90 acre-feet share and the
firm yield would be 8,038 acre-feet or .44 acre-feet per share. Therefore, the
increased firm yield per share if one-half of the Keesee water rights were acquired by
LA WMA would be .11 acre-feet and the increased yield per share would be, on
average, .04 acre-feet per share. That translates into a firm share yield increase of
approximately 30.7% and an average share yield increase of 4.7% if one-half of the
Keesee water rights are purchased by LA WMA.

D. The cost to aLA WMA member for one acre-foot of firm yield replacement water
from 2004 through 2036 without one-halfofthe Keesee water rights is about $67.88.
The cost to a LA WMA member for one acre-foot of firm yield replacement water
with one-half of the Keesee water rights will be about $63.71. That cost decrease for
LA WMA' s members per acre-foot of firm yield replacement water from 2004 through
2036 if one-half of the Keesee water rights were acquired by LA WMA would be
, approximately $4.17 or 6.1 % while the increased firm yield of a LA WMA share
would be about .11 acre-feet or 30.7%.

E. LA WMA' s acquisition of one-half of the Keesee water rights as proposed herein
would add a firm yield of approximately 1,887 acre-feet of additional replacement
water to LA WMA's portfolio of replacement water. More importantly, with one-half
of the Keesee water rights full allocations of replacement water to LA WMA's
members are justified in four additional years and the allocations in the years of less
than a full allocation increase by as much as 30% in some years and by 11.2% overall.

F. LA WMA's acquisition of one-half of the Keesee water rights is also needed because
those rights are very unique since they can be stored directly in the Offset Account
and would assist LA WMA with placing a substantial cushion of replacement water

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