Arkansas - CSU Geospatial DSS for Integrated Water Mgmt_ Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account -Grant Application Form Form Revised May 2007 particularly related to selenium (Se) contamination. The findings could have promising applications in other river basins in Colorado. s. Previous and current research performed in the Lower Arkansas River Basin provides strong evidence that up to 60,000 acre-feet per year of additional water supplies can be made available using strategies assessed by the proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS. Coupled with the potential for substantial improvements in water quality in the Basin, the cost of this project is a small fraction of the potential benefits that can be produced through this water activity. t. Development of the proposed Arkansas River GeoDSS is complimentary to many of the CWCB programs that are helping meet the goals of the Statewide Water Supply Initiative. u. The economic vitality of the State is enhanced by efforts to reverse the current economic and environmental degradation that is occurring in the agriculture-based communities in Colorado such as those in the Arkansas River Valley. 4. Overview of the Water Project or Activity to be Funded Type of Activity The principal investigators of this proposed project have been conducting research in the Lower Arkansas River Valley (EARN), Colorado since 1996, and have carried out an extensive data collection program there since 1999. This unprecedented effort has resulted in the development, calibration, and testing of GIS-based simulation models describing flow and salt transport in the LARV for both surface water and groundwater, culminating in development of the GeoDSS for the Lower Arkansas River Basin. These models allow systematic investigation of measures for controlling salinization and Se loading, enhancing water conservation, and advancing integrated, basin-wide water management in the Lower Valley. The stage is now set for extending this effort to the entire Arkansas River Basin, from its headwaters to the Colorado-Kansas state line. It is proposed herein to initiate an extensive data collection effort for the Upper Arkansas River basin in parallel with ongoing monitoring programs in the Lower Valley supported by other projects. These data will be applied to initial calibration and verification of surface water and groundwater quantity and quality modeling tools, stream-aquifer modeling and conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water; simulation of water right entitlements, exchanges, and water transfers; economic evaluation of water management strategies for water conservation, improved water use efficiency, and environmental enhancement; and partnering with the MUSIC-USBR project for developing a coupled social-economic-physical model for the Lower Arkansas River Basin. Objectives The field data and modeling tools will be incorporated into adecision-making framework focused on meeting the following objectives: (1) increase the net economic benefits to agricultural production via reduction in salinity and waterlogging; (2) reduce salt, Se, and pollutant concentrations in the river at key locations, including the Colorado-Kansas state line, via reduction of loading in return flows to the river; (3) increase "liberated" water via reduction in non-beneficial consumptive use from high water tables under naturally vegetated and fallow alluvial lands and from invasive phreatophyte vegetation along the river corridor; (4) evaluate the impacts on the basin water quantity, quality, and water right entitlements of various proposed water leasing and exchange options, particularly those resulting in transfers of water outside the Basin; (5) provide tradeoff information relating expected economic net 8