Arkansas - Rotational Land Fallowing - Water Leasing Program_Application

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Form Revised May 2007 choose. Irrigators may participate with 100 percent of their irrigated land, or some lesser percentage, as they individually choose. Land irrigated by paIiicipating irrigators may be fallowed on a rotational basis to match hydrology (wet, dry and average years) with lease demands. All participating land will be fallowed the same percentage over the long term, although irrigators will have considerable flexibility to decide which land to fallow. Under one likely lease arrangement, each Participating Irrigator will receive an annual payment for participating in the program, plus an additional amount during years in which the irrigator fallows his land and has no crop revenue from that land. A. The Idea: The idea behind the Super Ditch Company is that irrigators in the Lower Valley by working together rather than separately - can maximize the value of their water rights that are presently decreed for irrigation, stock and incidental domestic use. The Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company will: 1. Provide mechanisms by which irrigators who are willing to fallow land can lease to municipal or other water users the water they do not use during the fallowing periods; and 2. Acquire and hold, for agricultural, municipal and other uses, water rights that might otherwise be sold and permanently transferred out of the Basin. B. The Water Rights: The water rights to be leased through the Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company will be those for water that is diverted from or stored on the mainstem of the Arkansas River and its tributaries (exclusive of Fountain Creek) at or below Pueblo Dam and above John Martin Reservoir and located so that the leased water can be delivered to municipalities and other water users without prohibitive transit losses. The water rights will be in the form of stock held in ditch and reservoir companies diverting or storing water from the main stem and its tributaries, and may include the Bessemer Ditch, Rocky Ford High Line Canal, Oxford Farmers Ditch, Otero Canal, Catlin Canal, Holbrook Canal, Fort Lyon Storage and Fort Lyon Canal, provided that such leasing is permitted by the ditch companies' articles of incorporation and bylaws. C. The Participating Irrigators: The Participating Irrigators will be those irrigators owning ditch and reservoir company stock who voluntarily choose to make available for leasing water they do not use when they fallow their lands. Participation will be entirely voluntary, so that each irrigator can choose for himself the extent to which he wishes to commit his land to the program, e.g., 50 percent of his land, if at all. Participating Irrigators will be required to grant a durable first right of refusal to the Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company in case they wish to sell their water in the future, so that the Company can acquire that water to meet its on-going lease obligations to Water Users. Participating Irrigators will be responsible for weed and erosion control on their fallowed land. D. The Municipalities and other Water Users: As presently envisioned, the Municipalities and other Water Users that could water through Lower Arkansas may include the following: Pueblo Board of Water Works, Colorado Springs Utilities, Pueblo West, Fountain Valley Authority, Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority, Canon City, Security, Widefield, St. Charles Arkansas Valley Conduit, Colorado State Parks, Division of Wildlife, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, energy and industrial users, other agricultural users. In order to avoid undermining the potential for the success of the program, a condition of leasing water is expected to be a voluntary agreement by the Municipality or other Water User not to purchase and transfer irrigation 6