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Water Supply Reserve Account -Grant Application Form <br />Form Revised May 2007 <br />environmental enhancements; finding cost-effective solutions and preserving cultural values in the <br />Arkansas River Valley; suggesting new strategies for enhancing operational flexibility; and full <br />compliance with all water rights and regulations. <br />Research related to this proposed water activity that has been conducted thus far in the Lower <br />Arkansas River Valley shows that groundwater tables can be markedly decreased, soil salinity <br />reduced, and relative crop yields increased by an average of 10 to 20 percentage points by <br />improving irrigation efficiency, reducing canal seepage, and installing subsurface drains in <br />selected regions. The proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS will build on these previous studies to <br />continue assessment of measures for lowering saline high water to increase productivity, <br />diminish the loading of salts and Se to the river system, and reduce non-beneficial consumptive <br />use under fallow and uncultivated areas, as well as cultivated fields during the off-season. <br />m. Rather than promoting a specific water conservation plan, the proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS <br />would be applied to evaluating the impacts of a wide range of strategies for water conservation, <br />increased water use efficiency, water leasing, and exchanges. <br />n. Application of the proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS will document the potential for making new <br />water available for use by developing strategies for reducing non-beneficial consumptive use due to <br />upflux from shallow groundwater tables and assessing the impacts of programs for removing <br />Tamarisk and other phreatophytes from the more than 40,000 acres of infested land along the river <br />corridor. Raising the net usefulness of water supply by improving its quality will also be considered. <br />Strategies for increasing water use efficiency will also be evaluated, but may not necessarily <br />directly reduce consumptive use. <br />o. The proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS can be applied to assessing the impacts of possible <br />enlargement of Pueblo Reservoir and other storage facilities. The GeoDSS can also be applied to <br />evaluating reoperation plans for Pueblo and John Martin Reservoirs to allow implementation of <br />measures for conservation and improvement of efficiency in the Arkansas River Basin, while <br />maintaining full compliance with water rights and the Colorado-Kansas interstate compact. <br />The Water Activity Addresses Issues of Statewide Value <br />p. Measures must be investigated for sustaining the valuable agriculture sector in the Arkansas River <br />Valley through reducing salinity and thereby increasing productivity of the land and the economic <br />vitality of the Valley's rural communities. These strategies also benefit the environment by reducing <br />salinity and Se concentrations in the soils, and lowering salt and Se loadings in return flows to the <br />mainstem Arkansas River and its tributaries. Similar issues are emerging in other intensively <br />irrigated river valleys in Colorado such as the Colorado and South Platte River Basins. <br />q. Maximum utilization of state waters is promoted by developing strategies that can enhance water <br />conservation in the Arkansas River Basin while maintaining full compliance with water rights and <br />compact entitlements. These strategies may involve reoperation programs for Pueblo and John <br />Martin Reservoirs that aid in the administration of compact entitlements. <br />r. Although issues of recovery of threatened and endangered wildlife species are not directly <br />addressed in this water activity, it is believed that strategies evaluated using the proposed Arkansas <br />River GeoDSS will enhance instream flow requirements for maintaining aquatic wildlife habitat, <br />7