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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form <br />Fonn Revised May 2007 <br />In the past 10 years DU and its partners have conserved over 20,000 acres. Contributing partners have <br />included numerous private landowners, CDOW, SPLRG, LSPWCD, NCWCD, DU, USFWS, COL, <br />Centennial Land Trust (CLT), RMBO, City of Brush, City of Fort Morgan, Julesburg Irrigation District, <br />Union Mutual Ditch Company, Box Elder Ditch Company, Lower Latham Reservoir & Irrigation Co., and <br />many more. This represents about 18 partners in total, all in agreement that we have diverse needs and goals <br />that can be satisfied by cooperating without compromising our core values. Only through this cooperation are <br />we able to raise the match required to access NAWCA grants. <br />Facilitating Water Activity Implementation <br />The project is in jeopardy without funding from the CWCB. As part of the partnership, many partners <br />and stakeholders have stepped forward to provide matching fiinds. The partnership believes that this project is <br />a perfect fit for the HB-1177 process. Without the SB-179 fiends the partnership will be unable to raise the <br />match required to successfully apply for additional grants including federal NAWCA grants, which would <br />bring $1M for projects along the South Platte. This grant would also add to the partnership and bring <br />additional State level expertise to our focus area. <br />There is an urgency associated with this project from a number of perspectives. Water rights on the <br />South Platte have been under threat from purchase and removal of consumptive water units, "buy and dry". <br />This effect, although not new, has escalated over the past several years resulting in reduced water allocations <br />or whole scale dry-up. Ducks Unlimited conservation easements protect both the natural aspects of the land, <br />but more importantly protect water rights for fiiture generations. Our water rights remain higlily flexible, but <br />elininate the opportunity for "buy and dry". Water rights must remain with the property in perpetuity, but <br />they can be used to generate recharge credits. Our goal is to assure long term use of the water right for <br />waterfowl, but as our partnership can attest the wetland projects provide benefits for environmental, <br />recreational, agricultural, municipal, industrial and cultural objectives. <br />Additionally, NAWCA grant applications compete nationally for about $40 million. These grants are <br />ranked by Joint Ventures. In Colorado, the Playa Lakes Joint Venture would rank the South Platte NAWCA <br />application. They have informed DU that there would not be a competing grant application. As a rule of <br />thumb all joint ventures are awarded at least one NAWCA application per round. Therefore, this NAWCA <br />application would have a high probability of being funded this round. DU has written three of four of these <br />grants for the South Platte, and we will be submitting two more in August 2008 for the Platte covering <br />Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. <br />Most of the projects identified in the proposal can be completed by December, 2009. DU, and many <br />of its partners have set annual budgets that will be implemented by July 2008. Although most of the design <br />and permitting phase can be completed by July 2009, most of the construction phase will take place the <br />following fiscal year. Budgeting time and funds in this manner may seem long, but supposing grant application <br />awards, followed by contracting time, it usually takes 6-8 months just to get fiinding contracts in place before <br />any work can commence. <br />DU and its partners have demonstrated the ability to implement the project in the proposed timeframe. <br />7