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Description of the Technical, Institutional and Legal Elements. <br />Overview. The Lower Arkansas Valley Super Ditch Company will create an <br />institutional and legal mechanism whereby irrigators who voluntarily forego irrigation can <br />lease water to municipa! or other water users. Irrrigators will incorporate an independent <br />Super Ditch Company to (ease their water, made available from forgoing historical irrigation, <br />to municipalities and other water users. <br />Technical details. The water leases may take various forms, including long term <br />leases, interruptible water supply agreements, and water banking, as the Super Ditch <br />Company negotiates with water users to meet their water needs. The leases will be written <br />on uniform forms to facilitate the sale and transfer of the underlying ditch company shares, <br />but the Leases will take into account the varying yields of each ditch company's shares. <br />Water leases will be for specific terms of years, and binding upon both the <br />municipal/water user-lessees and the irrigator-lessors, their successors and assigns. The <br />leases will constitute a legal encumbrance upon the ditch company shares leased by the <br />irrigators to the Super Ditch Company, and constitute a continuing obligation of the owner, <br />assignor, or successor of the ditch company shares. In this manner, the leases will provide <br />certainty to the municipal/water user lessees. 1Jndoubtedly, there will be a variety of lease <br />terms necessary to meet the differing needs of lessees, but it is expected that leases will run <br />for as long as 40 years with a right of renewal. Municipalities have demonstrated their <br />comfort with such lease periods through contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation. It is, of <br />course, impossible to predict whether climate change, domestic energy demands, andlor <br />agricultural economics will support irrigated agriculture any farther into the future, a question <br />of paramount importance to the duration of the program. <br />Water rights. The rights to be leased through the Super Ditch Company will be <br />water rights that are diverted from or stored on the mainstem of the Arkansas River and its <br />tributaries (exclusive of Fountain Creek) at or below Pueblo Dam and above John Martin <br />Reservoir and located so that the leased water can be delivered to municipalities and other <br />water users without prohibitive transit losses. The water rights will be in the form of stock <br />held in ditch and reservoir companies diverting or storing water from the mainstem and its <br />tributaries, and may include the Bessemer Ditch, Rocky Ford High Line Canal, Oxford <br />Farmers Ditch, Otero Canal, Catlin Canal, Holbrook Canal, the Fort Lyon Canal, and other <br />ditches (provided that such leasing is permitted by the ditch company's articles of <br />incorporation and bylaws). The Super Ditch Company will lease ditch company shares from <br />Participating Irrigators taking into account their varying "yields" as determined by the ditch <br />companies' water rights priorities and historic consumptive use. Shares in different ditch <br />companies will lease for different amounts because of varying yields, more reliable shares, <br />such as those that were not called in 2002, fetching a higher lease price than less reliable <br />shares. <br />Specific information on water sources, location, yield, hydrologic variation, extent of <br />development and water rights is available in HDR's Preliminary Engineering Study, <br />Rotational Land Fallowing-Water Leasing Program Nov. 2007). <br />