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<br />STATE OF COLORADO <br /> <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br /> <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Shennan Street, Room 721 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: (303) 866-3441 <br />Fax: (303) 866-4474 <br />www.cwcb.state.co.us <br /> <br /> <br />Bill Ritter, Jr, <br />Govemor <br /> <br />TO: <br /> <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board Members <br /> <br />Harris D, Sherman <br />DNR Executive Director <br /> <br />FROM: <br /> <br />\ 1'- Y!- <br />Kirk Russell, PE~ C-&" r' <br />Mike Serlet, PE, Chief r J <br />Water Supply Protection Section <br /> <br />Jennifer L. Gimbel <br />CWCB Director <br /> <br />Dan McAuliffe <br />CWCB Deputy Director <br /> <br />DATE: <br /> <br />January 14,2008 (UPDATED January 28, 2008) <br /> <br />SUBJECT: <br /> <br />Agenda Item lld, January 22-23, 2008 Board Meeting <br />Water Supply Planning and Finance Section - New Project Loans <br />Republican River Water Conservation District - Compact Compliance Pipeline <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />The Republican River Water Conservation District (District), acting by and through its Water Activity <br />Enterprise, is requesting a loan from the CWCB in the amount of $60 million to finance the engineering, <br />construction and water acquisition related to the Compact Compliance Pipeline Project (Project). The loan <br />represents approximately 85% of the estimated total cost of $71 million for the Project. The Project is needed <br />to meet the State's Republican River Compact (Compact) delivery requirements, as well as maintain a vital <br />agricultural economy in the eastern plains of Colorado. The major components of the Project are $50 million <br />for water right purchase and $21 million in a water delivery system. Final design is expected to start in <br />January, 2008 and construction is scheduled for 2008 & 2009. See attached Project Data Sheet for a location <br />map and a proj ect summary. <br /> <br />Background <br /> <br />In December 2002, the State of Colorado entered into a Final Settlement Stipulation (Stipulation) with <br />Kansas and Nebraska to end the U.S. Supreme Court case of Kansas v. Nebraska and Colorado. In the <br />Stipulation, the States agreed to the development of a ground water model to determine stream flow <br />depletions caused by well pumping in the Republican River Basin and to base Compact delivery <br />requirements on a five-year running average. The first five-year period ended in 2007. <br /> <br />The District was established by statute in 2004 to assist the State of Colorado to comply with the Compact. <br />The District imposed a use fee on water diversions in the basin. This fee provides revenues for District <br />programs to retire irrigated acreage and to assist the State with the Compact compliance. <br /> <br />Since December 2002, the State has exceeded its annual allocations of beneficial consumptive use under the <br />Compact by an average of 11,350 AF /yr. For that reason, the District focused its efforts until recently on <br />providing local cost-sharing for federal programs to voluntarily retire irrigated acreage in the basin. When <br /> <br />Water Supply Protection. Watershed Protection & Flood Mitigation. Stream & Lake Protection. Water Supply Planning & Finance <br />Water Conservation & Drought Planning. Intrastate Water Management & Development <br />