Metro - Parker W&S CSU Joint Project Rural Urban Farm Model_Application

• Basin Roundtable: Metro
• Applicant: Parker Water & Sanitation District/CSU
• Description: Joint Project on Rural/Urban Farm Model
• Account Source: Basin
• Board Meeting Date: 9/19/2007
• Contract/PO #: 150413
• WSRA - Doc Type: Grant Application

Water Supply Reserve Account – Grant Application Form
Form Revised October 2006
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3.
Please provide an overview of water project or activity to be funded including – type of activity, statement of what the

activity is intended to accomp lish, the need for the activity, the problems and opportunities to be addressed,

expectations of the participants, why the activity is important, the service area or geographic location, and any
relevant issues etc. Please include any relevant Tabor issue s. Please refer to Part 2 of criteria and guidance

document for additional detail on information to include. Attach additional sheets as needed.

The study is designed to provide additional renewable water supplies to the PWSD service area in
Douglas County, as shown on the attached map. Because of the growth expected in PWSD and the reliance

on Denv er Basin water, which SWSI identified as raising serious reliability and sustainability concerns, PWSD

is trying to reduce its dependence on these non - renewable resources. As SWSI points outs, there is going to
be increased competition for water and in - bas in solutions , and conservation should be initial steps used to help

meet future municipal demands. PWSD has already accomplished these tasks. PWSD has appropriated all of

the remaining in - priority water in Cherry Creek, its local renewable water supply, an d will manage the use of

this water and its available reusable water, through Rueter - Hess Reservoir. PWSD has also implemented an
aggressive water conservation plan that has result ed in a 40 percent reduction of water demand over the past

15 years.

These plans, while reducing the use of Denver Basin water, are not enough to fully reduce PWSD’s

dependence on non - renewable resources. PWSD recognizes that additional renewable water supplies can be

developed from the agricultural sector, but wishes to do it in a manner that minimizes the effects on the rural

economy. It is for this reason that PWSD has partnered with Colorado State University (CSU) to evaluate
means to make historic consumptive use water from agriculture available to PWSD, and potentially other

municipal water providers, while still maintaining viable farming operations. PWSD is not interested in the

“buy and dry” concept that has historically been used to take water from irrigated farmland.
The proposed 3 - year project will include controlled r esearch by CSU on a farm in Logan County that

is owned by PWSD (Hurst farm , as shown on the attached figure). Various crops will be planted by CSU and

these plots will be irrigated in different patterns to assess the crop’s ability to thrive under varying irrigation

practices, e.g. , irrigating alfalfa p rior to its first cutting, letting it grow without irrigation through the second
cutting, and then irrigating it again prior to the third cutting. In this way , CSU will develop a data base on the

most efficie nt irrigation practices for various crops where the crop can still thrive under a lower irrigation

volume. The difference between the reduced irrigation volume and the historic irrigation volume related to
consumptive use could then be made available for t ransfer to PWSD for municipal use.

While the controlled research will develop an extensive data base on efficient irrigation practices, it

also has to be shown that these applications can be implemented by farmers in the real world on a farm - scale

basis. Therefore, there will also b e 3 to 5 on - farm demonstrations at PWSD’s other farms in Logan County
(as shown on the attached map), which will have the farmer s continue to work their farms with guidance from

CSU. In this way, CSU will receive valuable input and feedback from the farmers about techniques that can

work on a farm - scale basis.
Other components of the CSU research will include extensive agricultural economic studies to assess

the potential trickle - down effect from changes in the farm economy, e.g . , effects to implement dealers, seed

and fertilizer dealers, local businesses, etc. There will also be surveys completed by CSU relative to the

acceptability of these concepts as the study progresses.
A copy of the CSU proposed scope of work and budget i s attached. The overall objective of this study

is consistent with the SWSI, which recognizes the need to reduce dependence on Denver Basin water because
of sustainability issues, but that development of new renewable water supplies should be sensitive to the needs

of smaller, rural communities which have limited financial resources.

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