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This legislation provided for the appropriation of$1,500,000 from the CWCB construction fund <br /> for the Board to develop and implement a competitive grant program to advance various <br /> agricultural transfer methods as alternatives to permanent agricultural dry-up in the South Platte • <br /> and Arkansas river basins, including but not limited to, interruptible water supply agreements, <br /> long-term agricultural land fallowing, water banks, reduced consumptive use through efficiency <br /> or cropping while maintaining historic return flows, and purchase by end users with leaseback <br /> under defined conditions. One major goal of the grant program was to effectively advance a <br /> diverse set of"on-the-ground" solutions to critical water supply issues and to support projects <br /> that will yield usable and transferable information which can be applied to other projects <br /> throughout the State. <br /> During the initial round of grant requests in May 2008, the total amount requested($2.3 million), <br /> exceeded the appropriated amount of$1.5 million. Of these requests,the Board approved three <br /> grant applications that totaled $1,000,000 and directed that$500,000 be reserved for applications <br /> to be considered at the November 2008 meeting. Staff is aware of interest in this program and <br /> letters have been received from potential applicants stating their intent to apply for grants in the <br /> future. Clearly, there is significant interest in this new area of water resource management and <br /> additional funding of this important program will provide for further advancement of the tools <br /> and methods to avoid the traditional dry-up of agricultural irrigated lands. <br /> The grant program established under SB 07-122 limited the projects to those located within the <br /> Arkansas and South Platte River basins. While the most critical need for alternative agricultural <br /> transfer methods is in the Arkansas and South Platte River basins, other river basins are facing <br /> similar challenges. This application proposes to extend the program Statewide. It is conceivable <br /> that agricultural conservation projects, interruptible supply agreements, water banks and/or <br /> fallowing programs could be implemented in other basins for benefits inside and/or outside of <br /> the basin. <br /> 2 <br />