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• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2008
• Description: IWMD Section - Alternative Agricultural Water Transfer Methods Grant Program
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Below is a summary of the project:
1. Establish an entity, to broke r leases of water from the Arkansas River to entities
that need water.
2. Determine the amount of water to be provided.
3. Determine how it can be transf erred to other locations.
4. Determine what improvements in canal structures are needed.
5. Determine water quality issues.
6. Determine pipeline location.
7. Determine if an Augmentation Plan is required.
Discussion:
The applicant submitted an application for co nsideration before th e CWCB at the May 2008
Board meeting. At that time, the Board accepted staff’s reco mmendation and did not
approve funding of the grant, due to lack of information. While this revised grant
application provides more detail, there are still significant questi ons. While it is clear that
the proposal seeks to build up on the successes gained through their lease agreements with
the City of Aurora—it appears to expand well beyond this area. Staff is not entirely clear
what final program or project th ey hope to achieve. Ideally , the project would build upon
the successes of the past leasing agreements. Fr om the review of the application, the project
is potentially in dire ct completion with the efforts of the Lower Arkansas Valley WCD.
Many of the ditches to be ex amined and analyzed are the sa me ditches being examined by
the LAVWCD. The application mentions the us e of various alterna tive methods such as
leasing, interruptible supply agreements and/ or rotational fallowing but is unclear on how
these various methods will be put to use.
Staff is supportive of this project in genera l terms and believes that the Highline Canal
Company’s past leasing efforts have advanced alternative methods to permanent agricultural
water transfers. The concerns raised above relate to how this project either complements or
competes with other projects that the CWCB have supported and are funding, namely the
LAVWCD’s Super Ditch Project. While compe tition often spurs bene ficial i nnovation,
there is a concern that the two entities may be attempting to pr oduce the same model. The
purpose of this Alternative Agricultural Transf er program is to advance new ideas and if
there is considerable overlap in the two groups’ efforts, then this will not be achieved.
Issue/Additional Needs:
Several of the tasks (e.g. ditch analyses, pi peline alignments) appear to be redundant
of work to be performed by the Lower Ar kansas Water Conser vancy District and
partially funded by the CWCB. Please id entify the tasks th at are potentially
redundant with LAWCD’s efforts and eith er explain how they are different or
describe how this project will work collaboratively wi th LAWCD’s work.
It appears that this applica tion is in direct co mpletion with the e fforts of the LAWCD
(Super Ditch). Please provid e an explanation indicating how this program is distinct
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