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LOWER ARKANSAS WATER MANAGEMENT acSOCIATION <br />P. O. Box 1161 <br />Lamar, Colorado 81052 RECEIVED <br />(719) 336 -9696 (719) 336 -2422 FAX <br />lawma @cminet.net NOV 0 8 2012 <br />Colorado Water <br />November 3, 2012 Conservation Board <br />BY EMAIL AND MAIL <br />(jennifer.gimbel@ state.co.us) <br />Ms. Jennifer Gimbel, Director <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />1313 Sherman Street, Room 721 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Re: Agricultural Emergency Drought Grant Application <br />Dear Ms. Gimbel: <br />Pursuant to Section 37 -60- 123.5, C.R.S., and the Colorado Water Conservation <br />Board's ( "Conservation Board ") Agricultural Emergency Drought Response Program <br />Guidelines/Procedures dated March 2010 ( "Guidelines "), I am writing on behalf of Lower <br />Arkansas Water Management Association ( "LAWMA ") to request a grant of $331,592.50 <br />($326,800 for augmentation water and $4,792.50 for drought related expenses) for emergency <br />drought - related water augmentation purposes. <br />LAWMA is a non - profit corporation organized for the primary purpose of <br />providing a means for its members to continue to make ground water diversions from irrigation <br />wells and other structures with junior priorities in the Arkansas River water rights regime. <br />LAWMA provides this service to its members primarily through its plan for augmentation <br />decreed in Case No. 02CW181, Water Division 2, and through its Rule 14 Plans. The <br />predominant use of water by LAWMA's members is for agriculture, but members also use the <br />water for commercial, municipal, domestic, and industrial uses. <br />The replacement water that LAWMA provides to its members under its Rule 14 <br />Plans and its plan for augmentation derives from the water rights that LAWMA changed for such <br />purposes in Case No. 02CW181 and from water rights LAWMA is now seeking to change in <br />Case No. 10CW085. The yield of those water rights has been drastically reduced in this year of <br />extreme drought in the Arkansas River Basin and throughout Colorado. In April, the State <br />Engineer's Office asked LAWMA to re- evaluate its Rule 14 Plan and adjust the projections in <br />that plan based on the developing drought conditions. To comply with the State Engineer's <br />request and to meet its members' water requirements as adjusted downward to respond to the <br />extreme drought conditions, LAWMA made an emergency purchase of 4000 acre -feet of <br />replacement water from the Pueblo Board of Water Works on the spot market, at a cost of $81.70 <br />per acre -foot, for a total cost of $326,800. <br />LAWMA also has incurred greater than normal administrative and engineering <br />expenses under these extreme drought conditions, in connection with responding to the State <br />Engineer's request for evaluation of the Rule 14 Plan and acquiring emergency replacement <br />supplies on the spot market. Therefore, in addition to a grant of $326,800 to cover the cost of <br />