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Plan by providing funding from the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund and Severance <br />Taxes. In 2004, the Foundation worked with MRCS and 17 landowners in Rio Grande <br />County to implement a similar riparian stabilization project, again partly funded with 2004 <br />EPA 319funds. This Project nowcontinues similar restoration efforts on another portion <br />of the 91 miles of Rio Grande covered by the 2001 Study. This water activity is <br />complementary to and is related, through the Rio Grande Interbasin Roundtable, to other <br />SB 179 projects such as the following: The San Luis Valley Irrigation District is <br />completing amulti-use enlargement study of the Rio Grande Reservoir. The RGHRP <br />has been providing input to that study in terms of discussions relating to changing flow <br />regimes, again addressed in the 2001 Study and Strategic Plan. In addition, the Rio <br />Grande Watershed Restoration Strategic Plan addressed the value of conservation <br />easements in protecting the Rio Grande corridor, and funding from both the Basin & <br />Statewide portions of the Water Supply Reserve Account was used to support these <br />efforts on the Rio Grande through the Rio Grande Initiative. <br />t. The water activity helps support the State's economic vitality and competitiveness in national <br />and international markets. <br />• The agricultural economy of the San Luis Valley produced $143,637,000 in <br />revenues in 2006, or 37.9 percent of the Valley's base industry income. Tourism <br />accounts for $43,508,000, or 11.5 percent of base industry income. This project, <br />by protecting the integrity of the Rio Grande, helps to support the Valley's <br />agricultural economic vitality and competitiveness by maintaining a healthy river <br />system . <br />PROJECT OVERVIEW <br />4. Please provide an overview of the water project or activity to be funded including -type <br />of activity, statement of what the activity is intended to accomplish, the need for the <br />activity, the problems and opportunities to be addressed, expectations of the participants, <br />why the activity is important, the service area or geographic location, and any relevant <br />issues etc. Please include any relevant TABOR issues that may affect the Contracting <br />Entity. Please refer to Part 2 of Criteria and Guidance document for additional detail on <br />information to include. <br />• Overview/Background: In October 2001, RGHRP completed a study of 91 miles <br />of the Rio Grande, from the town of South Fork tothe Alamosa/Costilla County <br />line. The 91 mile reach was selected as the portion of the Rio Grande in Colorado <br />that has been impacted the most by human intervention in the past 100 years. <br />The Study identified the condition of specific reaches of the river within the <br />identified 91 miles. <br />Problems: The 2001 Study determined that a major cause of the deterioration in <br />water quality, and hence fishery condition, was the continual increase in sediment <br />loading caused by unstable stream banks. These unstable stream banks are,in <br />turn, caused by a deteriorated condition of the riparian zone on the river and <br />changing river flow patterns. The channel and banks are typically sandy, with little <br />structural strength. The banks cave in from their own weight, particularly when