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•• � <br />South Platte Lower River Group, Inc. <br />100 Broadway Plaza, Suite 12 <br />Sterling, CO 80751 <br />REQUEST FOR CWCB GRANT <br />In 1995 a group of water user entities initiated a collaborative effort to address the water <br />management needs and issues affecting the lower reach of the South Plate River in Colorado. This <br />part of the South Platte River has become a focal point for water related issues including <br />additional wedands and wildlife habitat, threatened and endangered species in Nebraska, species <br />of concern in Colorado, protection of existing water uses, and Colorado's compact entitlemen� <br />The group's effort is focused upon the evaluation of Colorado's compact entidement on the South <br />Platte River and the identification of possible projects and strategies that could secure those <br />resources for Colorado's needs into the future. <br />This group became incorporated as the South Platte Lower River Group (SPLRG) and involved a <br />wide specirum of users with interests in the� lower South �Platte River. The primary sponsors of <br />the effort included the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD), the Lower <br />South Platte Water Conservancy District (LSPWCD), Groundwater Appropriators of the South <br />Platte river (GASP), and the Platte River Project (PRP). This group worked closely with the <br />Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOR�, the Colorado Division of Water Resources (DWR), and <br />various water users from the lower end of the river in organizing and initiating the effort. <br />The SPLRG developed a scope of study that included the investigation, demonsiration, and <br />development of opportunities, locations, methods,�criteria, and other facts necessary for capturing <br />and retiming flows in the Lower South Platte River basin that are available to Colorado water <br />users under the provisions of the South Platte River Compact. The opportunities and knowledge <br />developed through this process aze essendal to protect existing uses of water and to meet new <br />water needs such as improving streamflows, creating water supply, and developing water related <br />habitat for wildlife. In order to accomplish the investigation, SPLRG requested and received a <br />grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) for $ 75,000 and matched that <br />amount with $ 20,000 from the primary sponsors of SPLRG. In addition to the monetary <br />coniributions, there has been a large component of in-kind services in the form of ineetings, field <br />investigations, donation and operation of equipment, and engineering expertise that have also <br />helped the study push forward. These matching efforts provide an approximate contribution that <br />exceeds $ 50,000. <br />In the time since the beginning of the study, the SPLRG has also been able to obtain additional <br />funding sources from the aquatic section of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and from a <br />GOCO/Ducks unlimited matching wedands grant for the development of habitat associated with a <br />newly identified recharge project located at the Tamarack State Wildlife Area. SPLRG has also <br />been involved in the selection of projects that provide wetland and waterfowl habitat along with <br />