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of the study's emphasis is heavily on the water bank concept although the analyses of <br />engineering, water administration, and legal issues associated with the alternatives are listed <br />as separate tasks in the scope. <br />Issue/Additional Needs: <br />• Realizing that the objective of this project is to evaluate and illustrate alternatives to <br />permanent dry-up for the FRICO Barr and Milton shareholders, the scope of work <br />does not include sufficient detail to fully determine how these various alternatives <br />will be analyzed. Please address exactly how the alternatives will be analyzed and to <br />what detail will they be analyzed. In Task 1 and 2, the identification of alternatives <br />to permanent dry-up are identified. Once these alternatives are identified, it is <br />entirely unclear if any further advancement of the alternatives is being considered. <br />• Eligibility requirement #3 specifies that the applicant shall identify groups(s) of <br />agricultural users that are or may be willing to transfer a portion of their water and to <br />identify entity(s), group(s) or area(s) where the transferred water could or would be <br />put to the new use and a description of the new use. It appears that the only water <br />that is being contemplated for the proposed water bank are M&I return flows not <br />captured by the municipalities or those M&I waters not able to be stored. The <br />application states that in exchange for facilitating the storage of otherwise unused <br />M&I waters in the shared water bank, FRICO shareholders would receive a portion <br />of the credits. While this appears to be a great concept and should be pursued, it <br />does not appear to perpetuate agriculture in the long-term and there appears to be no <br />requirement for a farmer to continue irrigating in the long-term and does not appear <br />to meet the third eligibility requirement. If the proposal were the reverse and if <br />FRICO had excess agricultural water that could be available for M&I purposes, then <br />the shared water bank concept would most likely be eligible. <br />Staff Recommendation: <br />Since the application does not fully meet the eligibility requirements and specifically <br />#3, staff recommends that funding not be approved at this time for the Alternatives <br />Water Transfers in the South Platte Basin using the FRICO System project. The <br />applicant is encouraged to refine the project's scope of work to meet the eligibility <br />requirements and evaluation criteria and resubmit the grant request at the November <br />2008 CWCB meeting. The deadline for grant submittal for that meeting is <br />September 30, 2008. <br />4 <br />