29d

• Board Meeting Date: 11/19/2008
• Description: CF Section – Referred Non-Reimbursable Investments - Arkansas River Surface Water Rules Technical/Financial Assistance
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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The SEO is undertaking a process to draft and adopt rules to preclude potential future claims by
Kansas that Stateline flows have been depleted in violation of Article IV.D as a result of
agricultural efficiency enhancements. The rules will also provide protection to senior Colorado
water rights pursuant to Article IV.D of the Compact. An Advisory Committee has been
established by the SEO to provide input on the proposed rules. The CWCB Director is a lead
member of that Committee, and Board staff provides additional assistance and support to the
Committee. The rules are scheduled to be adopted prior to March 2009. To facilitate
compliance with, and simplify enforcement of, those rules it is proposed that the CWCB provide
technical and financial assistance to formulate and implement cost-effective means to comply
with the rules. As a result, we have begun discussing specific activities the CWCB could fund in
coordination with the Div. of Water Resources with $250,000 for technical and financial
assistance activities. These activities might include:
~ Acquisition of additional measuring devices for irrigation delivery systems;
~ Compliance planning and engineering;
~ Recordkeeping;
~ Database development;
~ Modeling;
~ Targeted land retirement;
~ Development of cooperative agreements with federal farm agencies; and,
~ "Start-up funding" that could be used to purchase or lease replacement water for initial
compliance plan obligations.
The specific technical and financial assistance activities and the eligible entities will be further
detailed in conjunction with the Advisory Committee. The Committee and a Solutions Sub-
committeewill bemeeting through at least March 2009 as the draft rules are readied for
adoption. As described in the attached agenda for the sub-committee, staff with input and
guidance from the Committee, will formulate a detailed development plan for use of these funds.
Initial discussions have indicated that the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District
("LAVWCD") should be the lead organization in developing a compliance plan and likely will
be the entity with which the CWCB works to utilize these funds.
Statewide Interest:
Some of the irrigators affected by the proposed rules have made substantial investments since
1999 in on-farm agricultural water use efficiency improvements. The rules were not proposed
until recently and will apply to all systems installed in 1999 and later, however no exception has
been made for compliance by those operators who may have already made improvements to their
systems. In addition, this program will help ensure that the state remains incompliance with the
Arkansas River Compact. Through the financial and technical assistance, we can simplify and
expedite voluntary compliance with the new rules once they are promulgated, thereby reducing
the potential for litigation and enforcement expenses. At the same time this assistance will help
promote more efficient irrigation water use, with the resulting productivity and water quality
benefits, in Mys that do not create Compact compliance issues.