Arkansas - Arkansas Valley Conduit_ Application Letter

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January 11, 2007 Mr. Rick Brown Intrastate Water Management and Development Section Colorado Water Conservation Board 1580 Logan Street, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80203 Dear Mr. Brown, The Southeastern Colorado Water Activity Enterprise hereby requests a $200,000 grant from the Water Supply Reserve Account to assist in the funding of a required local match to a Federal Grant administered through the Environmental Protection Agency for the Arkansas Valley Conduit. Clean drinking water is a real problem and concern in the Lower Arkansas River Valley. The best solution for water providers in this area is the Arkansas Valley Conduit (Conduit). Not only will the Conduit provide a less polluted source of drinking water for these entities, it will also provide better utilization of a precious, limited resource. This project is also important to this entire region of the state for economic development. While Feasibility and Engineering studies have been performed for the Conduit, the Federal Grant will allow the Enterprise and the water providers served by the Conduit to complete the studies and engineering needed to move the Conduit to a position that will allow the Conduit to be ready for the design and construction phases once Federal authorization and appropriations are passed. This vital project has made significant progress and appears to be in line to move to construction. However, there are still several items that need to be finalized and the Federal Grant along with the local match will provide the necessary funding to complete these items. The total Grant is expected to be about $1,227,000. The Federal portion will be $675,000. The local match is projected to be about $552,000. It is anticipated that the local match will be funded as follows: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District $112,000 Conduit Participants $100,000 Previous studies (as allowed) $140,000 CWCB Water Supply Reserve Account Grant $200,000 As you can see, the State?s contribution to the local match is significant. We believe this project to be of such importance to the State that it warrants the requested funds. As outlined in the application, we also believe that this project meets all the grant requirements as written.