Stonewall Springs Project Contract

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<I~' EXHIBIT AN t. ">UL'1 ~ STATE OF COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION GRANT AGREEMENT THIS CONTRACT made this .l.81h day of April, 1995, by and between the Colorado State University, Cooperative Extension, I Administration Building, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-002 (the "Contractor") and the . Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Water Conservation Board, 1313 Sherman St., Room 721, Denver, Colorado, 80203 (the "Client"); WHEREAS, authority exists in the law and funds have been budgeted, appropriated and otherwise made available and a sufficient unencumbered balance theory remains available for payment in Agency PDA, Fund Number 424; Organization Code !MIT; Appropriation ~gram Code WTRe; Object Code .llill; Sub Object Code ill; and Contract Encumbrance Numbe 3'f(, . WHEREAS, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Water Conservation Board wishes to contract with the Colorado State University, Cooperative Extension, for the following services involving grant assistance for the purpose of a pilot program demonstrating the benefits of water efficiency measures pursuant to the authority granted in Section 37-60-119, CRS: . . A field research and demonstration site will be established at the Stonewall SRrings (farm) located in Pueblo County, east of the City of Pueblo and divided by Highway 50. The property is located immediately north of the Arkansas river. This project will demonstrate new irrigation application technology and the economic benefits of this technology to encourage irrigators to use more effective water management. This new technology will include surge and low energy precision application systems combined with computerized irrigation scheduling technology based on the use of solar-powered weather stations with cellular communications. Alfalfa and other legumes and grasses and/or grass-legume mixtures will be part of the project to study other possible practices to reduce salt and nitrate loading. . The project will include salinity mapping during the demonstration period. Alfalfa will be planted in the fall of 1995 or 1996 on the pivot with the better soil type. Soil type and salinity will . determine the grasses and/or legume mixes planted on the remaining pivots in the demonstration area. Four grass mixtures and/or grass-legume mixtures wiII be planted with the more salt-tolerant mixtures on the more saline soils. These mixtures will be planted in grazing cells and forage cages which wiII be harvested to determine forage yield and quality while visual . evaluations will be made of other forage characteristics such as recovery, grazing tolerance and species preference. Soil tests will be taken before 1995, 1996, '1997 and after the 1997 growing seasons to determine nutrient needs and use. Sub-surface nitrogen and salinity will be determined by sampling from the two, three, and four foot levels. Nitrogen and salinity loading wiII be calculated from this sampling. Water quality samples wiII be taken from wells supplying water to the demonstration sites under the center pivot systems and the surge irrigation system. A complete irrigation water suitability analysis wiII be conducted on these samples and will include conductivity, total dissolved solids, salts and nitrate-nitrogen. These wells will also be monitored and analyzed for agricultural chemicals. Water-use efficiency will be determined, in part, by resistance blocks or dielectric constant measurement placed in the crops at varying depth to monitor available soil moisture. Measurements wiII be taken in the soil to a four-foot depth as ~~;~ :~ 11~'.:2ay t:-.~ eff~c..fv~ r00t '7.or,:" ~f'lr a1falf3 a~d grasses. Surge irrigation and conventional furrow irrigation wiII be done on the better soil type on the northern part of the property and will