Rio Grande - Manassa Conejos River & N Branch Stablization_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Fonn Revised May 2007 reduce or remove the difficulty, in dry months, to deliver surface rights into the area and to get water to the ditches in priority, and reduce water losses at the Los Sauces gauge and at the Rio Grande Compact gauge. • Promote cost effectiveness - Up to this point local land owners, MLI, the District, and small local contractors have attempted to correct the problems described above. Some land owners have taken measures into their own hands, dumping dead cars, construction debris, and scrap metal into the affected area, causing fiu-ther problems. o In Phases I and 11, realignment of the channel and reduction of sediment and debris in this NRCS-designed Project will eliminate many thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. o It will save countless hours of frustration and concern, reduce fixture liabilities due to the threat of flooding, and allow MLI to focus its resources more productively. o Although they have not been quantified, and the savings accomplished by this Project would be difficult to measure for such factors, damage has been done over the years to downstream fisheries, there have been costs and consequences for the lack of water quality downstreann from this diversion, and there is estimating the waste of resources and the frustration caused by MLI's inability to establish proper water-management controls at this diversion. o In addition to tangible benefits, therefore, this Project also promotes some intangible benefits to consumptive and nonconsumptive uses. Provide operational flexibility - All users will have better access to 'kvater, providing more flexible options for consumptive users. For example, improved options for allocation and management of water resources later in the year will allow- MLI to store more water in Platoro Reservoir during Nvet times, which can be pulled out later in the irrigation season. Operational flexibility is created by reducing and mitigating the conveyance losses of released stored water which have plagued MLI for the past fifteen years. Having a more constant and regulated flow in the main stem will allow the Ritchfield Canal, which now gets some of its irrigation through the North Branch diversion, to get their water at their own headgate which is already located lower on the main charmel. This, in turn, once established, will allow the state to send the equivalent amount of water dow nriver. These examples demonstrate the benefits to be obtained with the enhanced operational flexibility provided by this Project. • Optimize existing and fixture water supplies - The benefits provided by this Project will extend for decades into the future, re-establishing and enhancing river stability; reducing streambank erosion, sediment load and woody debris, facilitating sediment transport, and restoring the river's ability to maintain channel capacity. Provide for enhanced riparian habitat and endangered/threatened species - With predictions of hotter and drier times in this semi-arid environment, restoring vulnerable riparian habitat is difficult, as these areas usually recuperate more slowly than they deteriorate. As described in the Evaluation Criteria above, restoring river stability and maintaining channel capacity will help to protect the riparian habitat conservation focus area below Antonito, identified in the Rio Grande Habitat Conservation Plan. There is documented evidence of breeding habitat for the southwestern 17