C150402 CT2015-090 Feasibility Study

Home Browse Search

Direct flow decrees associated with the Ephraim Ditch diversion are as follows Priority No. 56 with a decree of 47 cfs Ephraim Ditch Company has 50,000 outstanding shares. Assessments are determined at the annual meetings of the Ephraim Ditch Company, held on the first Monday in February, or as close to that date as possible, of each year. Assessments have been at $0.20 per share for the past five years. This provides the baseline administrative assessment required to run the company. In addition, when the communal pumps come on, stockholders pay an additional fee per hour to run the pumps, apportioning each irrigator's share of the actual electrical bill at the end of the year. Attached is a schedule of these charges, including a list of those who are delinquent in their payments. The cost of pumping represents a significant financial burden, so reducing the dependence on pumping will greatly benefit water users and help to improve in the local economy. The Ephraim Ditch Company, at a special stockholders meeting on October 7, 2013, voted to create a special separate assessment for the purpose of servicing the CWCB loan. The loan- servicing assessment will be added to the original baseline assessment and the pumping assessment. Details are in the attached Minutes of that meeting. NEED FOR THE PROJECT The Ephraim Ditch Company and the District need to have diversion structures that function effectively. This project, serving over 5,000 acres of irrigated land, primarily helps sustain agriculture. Water quality and channel stability on the Conejos are being negatively impacted by the Ephraim Ditch Company's resorting to the age-old methods of irrigators piling rocks, trees, cinder blocks, and whatever debris they can in order to divert their water. Gravel bars pushed up in the river during low water are repeatedly washed away when the river rises, causing further instability, sedimentation, and downstream bank erosion, while thousands of cfs rush by, overpaying the Compact. This project addresses the need for well-designed diversion structures, reduced maintenance, significantly improved water management efficiencies, and the accurate control of compact-entitled waters, as follows. Colorado needs to avoid over-paying the Rio Grande Compact. The Ephraim Ditch is located just 12 diversions upstream from the New Mexico border. As DWR adjusts its forecasts to meet Colorado's Compact requirements, the District implements curtailments, with ditches in The Confluence taking the brunt of those adjustments. Despite DWR's best estimates of current and expected river flows, errors in those forecasts often trigger premature or excessive curtailment of irrigators on the Conejos. This project addresses the need to install new 11 IPrepared by the Conejos Water Conservancy District, P.O. Box 550, Manassa, CO 81141 Per contract: Nicole V.Langley,Transforma Research&Design(www.transformagrants.com)