C150401 Feasibility Study - Laserfiche WebLink

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Bend Ditch, with assistance from the Conejos Water Conservancy District,to request WSRA grant funds for each of the three projects. This Loan Feasibility Study and the accompanying loan application signify the commitment of Sanford Canal Company to complete the Rehabilitation of the Sanford Core and Diversion Project. PROJECT SERVICE AREA The Sanford Canal service area starts just below where the Conejos River and the San Antonio River meet, which means the Sanford system takes water from both the main stem of the Conejos and the San Antonio River. As can be seen in the attached photo, a highly complex landscape of shifting flows, and a maze of meandering streams, ponds, and wetlands is created by these two rivers as they come together, converging also with the North Branch of the Conejos. This area, known as The Confluence of the Conejos, is located only 12 miles from the point where Colorado releases its water to the Rio Grande Compact's downstream states of New Mexico, Texas, and the country of Mexico. In this critical area, the Sanford Canal Company's core has essentially been washed away over time (see photo), contributing to decades of limited diversion to irrigators and potential over- payment to the Compact. This project, in collaboration as described below, seeks to ameliorate and perhaps eliminate that problem. Groundwater dependence: Sanford Canal Company owns three communal wells completed into the confined aquifer. Like other ditches in the Confluence area, these wells pump into Sanford's communal system. Parcels in the Sanford system use flood and sprinkler irrigation, with both surface water and ground water, depending on wherever the need is greatest. Due to extreme and prolonged drought conditions, and despite the uniqueness of this shared system, irrigators have great difficulty getting their surface water when in priority. Np,, 6,goUk1DV�h1E This causes water users, by necessity, to depend excessively on pumping from the communal wells, thus potentially causing further drawdown on the already critical levels of the Rio Grande Basin aquifers. If irrigators were able to get their water in priority they would reduce their dependence on pumping. With priority 104 and 172, an important objective of this project is to reduce dependence upon ground water by efficiently delivering and managing surface flows. As described below, the Conejos Water Conservancy District (the District) is assisting this project in order to extend its Whole River Strategy to an additional 3,000 acres served by the Sanford Canal system and to avoid over-paying Colorado's obligation to the Rio Grande Compact. Th • Conejos Water Conservancy District's interests in this project are 1) to reduce the need for excessive use of well pumping, which potentially further stresses the Rio Grande Basin's aquifers. The majority of the ditches in the area of The Confluence are forced to pump because they cannot otherwise get their water; 8 I Prepared by the Conejos Water Conservancy District, P.O. Box 550, Manassa, CO 81141 Per Contract:Nicole V.Langley,Transforma Research&Design(www.transformagrants.com)