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b) Evaluation The negative effects associated with the permanent transfer of agrtcultural water rtghts to municipal use have been well documented. These Impacts fall on both buyers and sellers as well as on third parties not directly Involved In the water sales. The options program Is designed to avoid these Impacts to the benefit of all parties. Development of guidelines that meet the needs of both the municipal and agricultural entities who are potential participants. thus enabling the District to Implement the program. will constitute success for the project. 3. Origin of the project: The concept of agrtcultural option contracts to achieve efficient water use Is gaining prominence in the western United States. Factors including population growth. agrtcultural-to-urban demographic shifts, water scarcity. and the recognition that large-scale water supply projects will be Increasingly dlfflcult to build. have led to Innovative alternatives such as dry-year options to use water more efficiently. 4. Legal, Institutional, sociological, or environmental constralnts MuniCipal and agrtcultural users hlstortcally have had a relationship that can be better descrtbed as contentious than cooperative. Municipal users have generally preferred to own their water rights outright rather than relying on contract arrangements. and Irrigators have been suspicious of municipal attempts to acquire water from the agrtcultural sector. The District's Intent Is to work with both municipalities and Irrigators to formulate a project that will meet the needs and concerns of both communities, thereby overcoming their reticence to enter Into Innovative supply arrangements that achieve the most efficient use of Colorado's water. The environmental Impacts of the program will be positive ones. Keeping water on agrtculturalland will preselVe the green. open spaces that Coloradans have declared are an important part of the state's landscape. rather than drying up land unnecessarily. 5. Transferring project results: Project results will be communicated to C-BT allotment holders, Windy Gap participants. and other Interested parties through presentations at District and Subdistrict board meetings. regular water users' meetings, and other public meetings. A formal document setting out program guidelines. along with explanatory information, will be prepared. This document can be used by other Colorado entities Interested in formulating similar programs. as well as by those directly Involved In the District's program. These guidelines will be helpful to districts, cities and Irrigators throughout Colorado that are Interested In pursuing dry-year options. Governor Romer has recognized the potential of these arrangements to avoid the disruption often associated with acquisition of water for municipal use. and has called for Investigation of this alternative means of providing municipal supply. Such arrangements could offer substantial benefits to the state as a whole. Had the city of Aurora been able to rely on dry-year option arrangements rather than purchasing water rtghts In the Arkansas River basin, the well-known adverse Impacts associated with dry-up of agrtculturallands In that basin might have been avoided. [WPSIENGINEERlNG SCO'lT '474 3