PROJC02178 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Republican River Water Conservation District Agenda Item 26e November 10, 2008 (UPDATED NOVEMBER 19, 2008) Page 5 of 7 voluntarily retired in the basin under CREP and EQIP, or approximately 6% of the irrigated acreage in the basin. An amendment to the Republican River CREP designed to retire an additiona130,000 irrigated acres has been submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval. The Republican District remains committed to continue providing local cost-sharing for the retirement of irrigated land. In 2002, irrigated land in the Basin accounted for nearly 22% of all irrigated acres in the state. Water Rights The water included in this North Fork Lease totals 43 cfs, along with certainrights-of--way and infrastructure. The North Fork Lease is subject to a review of the current owner's title to the water rights and rights to convey the same, and a requirement by the current owners to sign covenants to dry-up the property on which the water rights were historically used. The Republican District has leased a portion of the water rights in 2008, which demonstrated the value of leasing such water to reduce the consumptive use charged to Colorado under the Republican River Compact Administration's accounting procedures. Project Description The Yuma County Water Authority reviewed the pending lawsuit which seeks to redraw the boundaries of the NHP Basin and may result in the curtailment of 1,338 irrigation wells (plus commercial and municipal wells) in Yuma County and studied the following alternatives: Alternative 1-Litigate Dispute: Both parties to the litigation were confident that they would prevail in the June 2008 hearing before the Groundwater Commission. It should be noted that both sides were equally confident prior to the District court appeal that lead to the hearing. At the District Court level both sides won some arguments and lost some arguments. The Yuma County PID expected that the parties would experience this same level of success as the litigation continued. Unless the NHP Basin groundwater users were completely successful there was a likelihood of curtailment of 300 to 1,300 wells. Case No. OS-GW-14 was set for a month long hearing in June 2008 in front of a hearing officer for the Groundwater Commission. The Yuma County PID estimated that it may take 4 to 10 years for a final conclusion to the dispute and cost between $3 to $8 million for attorney and engineering fees. It was unlikely that litigation would eliminate the need to mitigate impacts to the surface water users. Alternative 2 -Buy out the Water Rights (SELECTED): The North Fork surface users initially sought more than $40 million for their water rights, but after a year of negotiations settled for $20 million. The 2003-2007 average compact depletion charged to these rights was 2,578 AF/yr for the irrigation of 1,000 to 1,500 acres. This alternative prevents further litigation concerning a dispute lasting more than 30 years and threatening curtailment of the water supply to 190,000 irrigated acres. Coupled with the compact compliance pipeline, this purchase secures the irrigation, municipal, and commercial water supplies for the NHP Basin for many years. In addition, the water can be relied upon by Yuma County cities as an emergency augmentation supply in the event that compact compliance efforts fail and municipal wells are curtailed. (per North Fork Lease) The purchase contract also includes a dry up covenants from the sellers. There maybe additional