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Rio Grande Inter-Basin Roundtable <br />c/o San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District <br />415 San Juan Avenue <br />Alamosa, CO 81101 <br />Telephone: (719) 589 - 2230 <br />Email: sIvwcdcol@qwestoffice.net <br />September 24, 2008 <br />Mr. Harris D. Sherman, Executive Director <br />Colorado Department of Natural Resources <br />Mr. Eric Hecox, Manager, Office of Interbasin Compact Negotiations <br />Colorado Department of Natural Resources <br />Mr. Todd Doherty, Intrastate Water Management & Development <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />Reference: Rio Grande Reservoir Multi-Use Rehabilitation: Refinement & Enhancement of <br />Reservoir Reoperation and Optimization Model <br />Gentlemen: <br />The total cost of the Rio Grande Reservoir Multi-Use Rehabilitation: Refinement & Enhancement <br />of Reservoir Reoperation and Optimization Model (Reservoir Reoperation and Optimization <br />Model will be $100,000.00. The R.G. R.T. is requesting authorization and consideration for <br />distribution of Funds pursuant to SB 2005 -179, for Basin Funds of $100,000.00. <br />The applicant for these funds is the San Luis Valley Irrigation District (District) is an irrigation <br />district formed and operating pursuant to Title 37, Article 42 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. Its <br />office is located in Center, Colorado. The District owns and operates the Farmers Union Canal, <br />which diverts water from the Rio Grande River and delivers it through a network of over 100 miles <br />of ditches to nearly 62,000 acres of land in Alamosa, Rio Grande and Saguache Counties. It also <br />owns and operates the Rio Grande Reservoir located on the headwaters of the Rio Grande in <br />Hinsdale County, 20 miles southwest of Creede, Colorado. It is the only on-stream main stem <br />reservoir on the Rio Grande in Colorado. The Reservoir's current storage capacity is <br />approximately 54,000 acre-feet, the majority of which is presently used for the storage of irrigation <br />water for use within the District. <br />As an irrigation district formed under the laws of the State of Colorado, the District meets the <br />eligibility requirements of Senate Bill 06-179 for grant or loan funding. The District is not subject <br />to the limitations of the Tabor Amendment. In Campbell v. Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, 972 <br />P.2d 1037 (Colo. 1998), the Colorado Supreme Court held that an irrigation district is not a local <br />government within the meaning of Amendment I's (Tabor Amendment) taxing and spending <br />election requirements. While the irrigation district at issue in the Orchard Mesa case was formed <br />under the Irrigation District Laws of 1921(C.R.S. '37-41-101 et seq., see 972 P.2d. at 1038, n.2), <br />the Court's analysis is equally applicable to irrigation districts, such as the San Luis Valley <br />Irrigation District, that were created and operate under the Irrigation District Act of 1905. <br />Page 1 of 2