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and the Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP). Approximately 30,000 <br />irrigated acres have been voluntarily retired in the basin under CREP and EQIP, or <br />approximately five percent (5%) of the irrigated acreage in the basin. An amendment to <br />the Republican River CREP designed to retire an additional 30,000 irrigated acres has <br />been submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval. The RRWCD WAE <br />has committed to provide local cost-sharing for the Republican River CREP <br />amendment. <br />1.3. Project Area <br />The RRWCD is located in northeastern Colorado and includes all of Yuma and Phillips <br />Counties and those portions of Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Sedgwick, and Washington <br />Counties that overlie the Ogallala Aquifer. A map of the RRWCD is attached. <br />The RRWCD encompasses about 7,761 square miles or about 7.5% of Colorado's <br />104,247 square miles. There are currently approximately 498,000 irrigated acres within <br />the RRWCD. With the exception of approximately 3,000 acres irrigated by surface <br />water, virtually all the acreage in the basin is irrigated with ground water from the <br />Ogallala Aquifer. In 2002, irrigated land in the Republican River Basin accounted for <br />approximately twenty-two percent (22%) of the irrigated acres in Colorado. <br />The lands historically irrigated by the water rights that will be included in the North Fork <br />Lease are approximately 1,200 acres, as shown on Figure 1. <br />1.4. Land Uses Within the Republican River Basin <br />The Republican River Basin overlies the Ogallala Aquifer, a regional underground <br />aquifer system underlying portions of seven states from South Dakota to the Texas <br />panhandle, including portions of the Republican River Basin in Colorado, Nebraska, and <br />Kansas. The North Fork of the Republican River originates in the basin and flows <br />through the town of Wray, Colorado, and then into Nebraska. There are several small <br />ditches that divert surface water from the North Fork, or tributaries of the North Fork, in <br />Colorado. The largest of these is the Pioneer Ditch, which diverts water for irrigation of <br />lands in Colorado and Nebraska. <br />In 1965, the Colorado Ground Water Management Act was enacted, which created the <br />Colorado Ground Water Commission and allowed the Commission to establish <br />designated ground water basins. The Management Act applied a modified doctrine of <br />prior appropriation to designated ground water to permit the full economic development <br />of such ground water. <br />In 1966 the Ogallala Aquifer in the Republican River Basin in Colorado was included in <br />the Northern High Plains Designated Ground Water Basin. At that time, there was <br />limited well development in the basin. However, improvements in center pivot sprinkler <br />irrigation systems allowed the development of land that was more difficult to irrigate with <br />flood irrigation methods, and approximately 4,000 final permits have been issued within <br />the Northern High Plains Basin. Issuance of permits in the basin slowed during the <br />1980s and essentially ceased by 1990. The Colorado Ground Water Commission <br />3 <br />