South Platte - Arickaree Well Retirement - Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Fonn Revised May 2007 For Applications that include a request for funds from the StateNvide Account, describe hogs- the i ater activity meets the Evaluation Criteria. See Part 3 of Criteria and Guidelines. Promoting Collaboration and Cooperation This project could not be completed without a high degree of collaboration and cooperation. The key cooperating entities are The Nature Conservancy, the Republican River Water Conservation District, and the well owners vohrntarily engaging in the project TNC' and the District have worked together closely for over two years to .find a way to fit targeted well retirements into the larger Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and Environmental Quality Incentive Program that they have developed to help comply, with the Republican River Compact and address other serious water issues in the basin. TNC and the District also worked with landowners to make them aware of the opportunity, negotiate contracts, and enroll in either the CREP or EQIP. The Colorado Division of Water Resources has also provided technical support and concept approval without which the project would not be possible. Research being conducted by water resource engineering, fish biology, and agricultural engineering professors at Colorado Vate University is also informing the well retirement project in critical ways that help ensure that funds expended will be spent responsibly in terms of obtaining the best water return for.- the investment As such, this project is based completely on collaboration. The collaborators are hopeful that this effort will inspire other similar collaborations and applications in the Republican basin and in other water-stressed areas of Colorado and the West. This is a model for how conservation groups can work with water users to preserve consumptive water uses in a basin while achieving targeted brrt important conservation bene}its for streams and species. Facilitating Water Activity hnplementation The proposed activities will address an urgent need to comply with an interstate compact; as of December 2007, Colorado must be in compliance with the terms of the settlement on the Republican River Compact These activities are directly linked to voluntary individual enrollments in the Republican River Water Conservation District's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (('REP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Both the CREP and EQIP programs in the Republican Basin are water activities since they both directly incentivi.re irrigation well retirements designed to help Colorado meet its commitments under the Republican River Compact with Nebraska and Kansas. Further, both the CREP and EQIP are limited in time and in the number of acres they can enroll, meaning that there is a limited time during which this incentive program can be implemented TNC has been working with partners and well owners on this project, for two years, and the project is ready to be implemented in 2008 as soon as funding becomes available. These proposed activities will also reduce uncertainty that the CREP and EQIP will be implemented effectively (i. e., with most effect) since the activities proposed in this application are designed to promote enrollments in CREP and EQIP in places where the retirements will have greater impact (i.e., close to the river) than they would generally be expected to occur all things being equal. That is, without the added incentives described in this application, program enrollments are just as likely to occur well away,fiom sw.-face streams (e.g., 4 miles) as they are to occur near the Arickcrree. As such, these incentives will improve the targeting of well retirements,for compact compliance and environmental benefitand should increase the certainty ofbenefits on both metrics. 7