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Alternative Agricultural Water Transfer Methods -Grant Application Form <br />January 2008 <br />Aurora, as a team member and partner, is a potential user of the recharge credits (for augmentation and <br />return flow replacement purposes) generated at the wetlands constructed by DU and any fully <br />consumable water which could be supplied to the Prairie Maters Project by either direct diversion or by <br />exchange. In the course of further engineering studies concerning exchange capacity and the yield of <br />consumptive use credits from each specific project, the number of users and?or taps that can be served <br />will be determined. <br />The recharge credits generated by the wetlands could also be leased or otherwise acquired by irrigation <br />well owners for augmentation purposes. Making the recharge credits available to augmentation plans <br />will increase the ability of these plans to sustain farms that are dependent on groundwater irrigation and <br />will help to sustain irrigated agriculture in the South Platte River basin. <br />a) Socio-economic character°istics of the ai°ea such as population, employment and land use. <br />It is anticipated that the location of wetlands will be in rural, agricultural areas near the South <br />Platte River in ?Xleld, Adams, Morgan, Logan, or Sedgwick Counties. It is likely that a small <br />town will be in the vicinity of the project. Rural towns in these areas typically have <br />populations of a few thousand people. A significant proportion of employment in these <br />areas is either directly or indirectly related to agricultural production. <br />It is likely that, as water is transferred out of agriculture in the typical "buy and dry" fashion, <br />the socio-economic situation in towns dependent on irrigated agriculture will deteriorate. A <br />goal of this effort will be to increase the likelihood that this situation will be avoided. <br />3. Desci°iption of the Alternative Water Transfer Method <br />Please describe the type(s) of water transfers that will be examined/utilized (i. e., conceived ti^ansfer methods <br />include, but are not limited to: 1) interruptible tivater supply agreements; 2) long-term agricultural land <br />fallowing; 3) water banks; 4) reduced consumptive use through efficiency or cropping changes while <br />maintaining historic return flows; and 5) purchase by end users with leaseback under defined conditions). In <br />addition, please describe how the transferable consumptive use will be calculated and quantified, and how <br />return flow patterns will be addressed/maintained. <br />An objective of this project is to test and validate more than one of the alternative agricultural water <br />transfer methods on the three specific projects in order to provide practical experience for development <br />of the Business Plan. The Corn Growers Team will consider several alternative agricultural water <br />transfer methods. A description of each method is described below along with details regarding <br />calculation of transferable consumptive use and maintenance of return flows. For each of these <br />alternatives, the economic impacts to producers will be examined along with the price per acre-foot of <br />water that would need to be charged in order to sustain the profitability of the farm. In addition, the <br />10