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<br />CDIVI <br /> <br />SWSI Phase 2 Technical Roundtable <br />Agricultural Transfer Alternatives to Permanent Dry-up <br /> <br />and 37-92-308(4) allow the State Engineer to approve and administer interruptible <br />transfers under certain conditions. Otherwise a change of water right will be <br />required. <br /> <br />. Soil, weed, labor, and equipment management issues must be considered during <br />those periods when the interruptible transfer is occurring and there is no irrigation. <br />A farm operation involves not only the planting, irrigating, and harvesting of <br />crops, but the hiring of labor and maintenance of equipment. In addition, the <br />management of soil erosion and weed growth will be issues on irrigated fields that <br />are temporarily dried up. <br /> <br />. Some agricultural crops, such as orchards, vineyards, and some hay crops are <br />difficult to fallow and may not be appropriate for an interruptible transfer. <br /> <br />Rotating Agricultural Transfer (Fallowing) with the Option for Firming for <br />Agricultural Use <br /> <br />Another concept explored during the SWSI BRT process attempted to capture the <br />benefits of a permanent agricultural transfer without the negative impacts. This <br />concept, rotating agricultural transfers with the option of storage to firm agricultural <br />supply consists of a type of interruptible agricultural transfer arrangement involving <br />several agricultural parties and one or more M&I or other users. Each agricultural <br />user would agree not to irrigate for 1 year out of a set period of years corresponding <br />to the number of agricultural users in the program making the flows available to M&I <br />users or possibly other users. For example, if 10 agricultural users joined the <br />arrangement, each would take their turn not irrigating in 1 year out of 10. The M&I <br />user would obtain a constant annual yield, with this yield coming from a different <br />agricultural user each year. An additional option would be to set aside a portion of <br />the water from the agricultural lands not irrigated in each year to be placed into <br />storage to firm the yield to the agricultural users that are part of the agreement. This <br />agricultural firming pool would be used in below average years to improve the yield <br />for those agricultural users that are irrigating that year. <br /> <br />The benefits of this rotating agricultural transfer approach include: <br /> <br />. M&I reliability is improved since there is a guaranteed additional supplemental <br />supply of water each year. <br /> <br />. A better or more stable income can be provided to agricultural users, since an <br />income would be guaranteed during the fallowing year and the firming of <br />agricultural yield will result in a more predictable farm yield during a drought. <br /> <br />. A permanent transfer of agricultural water rights may not be needed, avoiding <br />some of the negative impacts of a permanent agricultural transfer. <br /> <br />. Maximizes the benefits of a non-tributary groundwater conjunctive use program. <br />Non-tributary, non-renewable groundwater has a firm annual yield that does not <br />vary from wet to dry years as long as the resource is not significantly depleted. The <br />life of this groundwater resource could be extended by relying on a rotating <br /> <br />DRAFT <br /> <br />13 <br /> <br />S:\MEETINGS\TECHNICAL ROUNDTABLE\TRT MEETING - SPECIFIC\AL TERNATIVE AG TRANSFERS\SWSI TRT ALTERNATIVES TO PERMANENT DRY-UP BRIEFING 9-6-05_CJEDOC <br />