13-60 Lower S. Platte WCD - Grant Request

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SEDGWICK STE P��rvG LOGAN MORGAN WASHINGTON I LOWER SOUTH PLATTE WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT 100 BROADWAY PLAZA, SUITE 12 / STERLING, CO 80751 / PHONE 970 - 522 -1378 FAX 970- 522 -0848 October 22, 2012 Anna Mauss, P.E. Colorado Water Conservation Board Department of Natural Resources 1580 Logan Street, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80203 (303)866 -3441 x 3224 REF: 2012 AGRICULTURAL EMERGENCY DROUGHT GRANT APPLICATION FOR THE LOWER SOUTH PLATTE WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT WATER ACTIVITY ENTERPRISE Dear Ms. Mauss, This letter and the enclosed documentation is in support of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District's (LSPWCD) Water Activities Enterprise request for funding through Colorado's Agricultural Emergency Drought Response Grant for the 2012 water year. LSPWCD was formed in 1964 under the Water Conservancy District Act of 1937. The district provides augmentation for 71 wells in Sedgwick County. These wells operate under The Julesburg Recharge Project (JRP) which has been in operation since 1990. The original JRP recharge facility was created as a recharge demonstration project. It was carried out in association with the Colorado Division of Water Resources and has proven to be a successful venture. In 1993 the JRP was set up as a Water Activities Enterprise under LSPWCD. This created a program where participating well users pay for all costs associated with the recharge project and well augmentation while LSPWCD provides water and financial accounting for the project and coordinates the management of the augmentation plan. LSPWCD obtained a court decreed augmentation plan (Case No. 02 -CW -320) in 2007. In addition, LSPWCD has recently filed for an amendment to the augmentation plan (Case No. 08- CW-24) to augment nine additional wells and add new recharge water rights for the Heyborne Recharge and Wildlife Project. The nine new well users operated under a Colorado State Engineer approved substitute water supply plan during the 2012 water year while the remaining wells operated under the court approved augmentation plan. LSPWCD fully augmented out -of- priority depletions to the river as required by the state and division engineer. The replacement supplies consisted of the generating and leasing of recharge accretion credits in 2012. I have completed all of the accounting necessary for the LSPWCD operations for the 2012 water year. This involved the use of groundwater modeling using the AWAS model (Glover method) developed by the IDS group at CSU to compute lagged well depletions and recharge accretions at the river. Flow meter data was collected for the wells by district personnel, and records provided by the water commissioner were utilized to quantify recharge site inflows.