Arkansas - Upper Ark WCD Hydrologic Water Balance Study_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account- Grant Application Form Form Revised May 2007 Relevant project historv: Planning for this project started early. From 2000-2003, UAWCD collaborated with the USGS to study the sustainability of ground water resources in the Upper Arkansas River Basin between Buena Vista and Salida in an -150-square mile area. In 2006, the Chaffee County Water Resources Group submitted a proposal for a study to investigate aquifer storage properties that involved drilling -10 deep wells. As the District went through the 2007 planning process with the County and USGS, the project scale was narrowed and the project area was clearly defined to generate a reasonable budget focused on a judicious -20 mile by -40 mile region. USGS re-wrote its original scope of work to save money by eliminating the plan to drill -10 deep wells and relying instead upon three municipal wells and -50 existing domestic wells; -30 wells have pre-existing access agreements from the 2000-2003 study. When the District received in late 2008 funding for its -$815,000 structural water project to construct 15 water (and weather) data collection platforms, the timing was right. Increased data points at high elevations in an area with high orography will increase the validity of study results. See also Table 8, regarding how the District reduced uncertainty that this study will be fully implemented by securing funding and by involving stakeholders. Other relevant project planning includes joint UAWCD, USGS, CWCB, and CSU strategizing: • On November 18, 2008, UAWCD, USGS, and CSU participated in a conference call with CWCB's Andy Moore and others to guarantee that the water balance study meshes with but does not duplicate CWCB future planning, specifically the CSU 2009-2011 $875,000 data collection project to help implement basin-wide DSS, and the CWCB DSS Scope of Work for a nine-month Feasibility Study in 2009 to assess basin-wide data needs and data gaps. • On January 12 and 13, 2009, UAWCD, USGS, and CSU met in the study area to conduct field reconnaissance to ensure that the proposed hydrologic water balance study was in no way redundant to the $875,000 CSU data gathering project, and that CSU collects data at points appropriate for both CSU and the hydrological water balance study. TABOR Taxpayers Bill of Rightsl issues: While the contracting entity is the Upper Arkansas Water Activity Enterprise (UAWAE), it and the District is not the sole beneficiary of the total anticipated grant award. Additional beneficiaries are those cost share partners who are contributing matching funds totaling -23% of the total -$406,912 water balance study. Table 10 summarizes these cost share partners / beneficiaries and the amount of their matching fund contribution. The benefit of the anticipated grant award will accrue to each cost share partner according to the amount of their cost share. The total amount of combined local and state grants to the UAWAE must be less than 10% its annual revenue. The benefit of the anticipated grant award shall accrue not solely to the UAWAE but also to each cost share participant in an amount proportional to each participant's contribution. UAWAE shall maintain accounting that apportions the costs and benefits from the cost share amounts contributed and the CWCB grant funding. Study Area Description(geographic area benefited by the water activitv): The study area is remote, rugged, and rural. Figure 2 depicts the study area in Chaffee County and parts of Lake and Saguache. The study area is an arid high mountain valley -20 miles wide by -40 miles long with high relief with an area of about 1,114 square miles. It is defined on the west by the Continental Divide. Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District (UAWCD) Page 28 of 42