BOARD01907

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2006
• Description: CF Section - FY07-08 Severance Tax Operational Account Recommendations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Water Planning Relationship: Water conservation methods and planning are an integral part of
water planning. Providing funds to educate and demonstrate to the water users a method that can
increase the conservation of water is vital to the overall goals of this Board.

Recommendation: Staff gives a low recommendation to the funding of this project because of the
limited funds available.

5. Small-Scale Biodiesel Plant Construction Project in the Lower Arkansas Valley

Beneficiary/Grantee/Contractor: Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District,
Local Water Users
Amount of Request: $250,000 Ranking: Low

Product Produced: This project will construct and operate a local small-scale biodiesel processing
plant facility in Rocky Ford. The facility will produce pure biodiesel from locally grown oil seed crops.
The facility will encourage winter crop growing particularly of winter canola and soybeans. This will
also encourage local farmers and ranchers to keep their water tied to their land for agricultural
production.

Water Planning Relationship: Water conservation methods and planning are an integral part of
water planning. Providing funds to educate and demonstrate to the water users a method that can
increase the conservation of water is vital to the overall goals of this Board.

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Recommendation: Staff gives a low recommendation to the funding of this project because of the
limited funds available.

Flood Protection Program

1. NRCS SNOTEL Site Installations

Beneficiary/Grantee/Contractor:
Amount of Request:

Natural Resources Conservation Service, Various
$15,000 Ranking:

High

Product Produced: Each proposed location would increase the data coverage for a particular basin to
improve water supply forecasting during the runoff season. These new sites would either automate an
existing manually measured snow course or provide new data in previously uruneasured basins. Where
existing snow courses are automated, these new SNOTEL sites will provide daily snowpack readings,
whereas the previous manually measured snow course was only read four times per winter. When new
sites are installed in previously unmeasured locations, this new data can be extremely valuable in
helping to calibrate basin forecasts. New data measurement sites can help explain previously unknown
hydrologic variability within the basin.

The proposed new SNOTEL site installations are as follows:

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. Near St. Elmo in Chaffee County, 15 miles southwest of Buena Vista;
. Near Rainbow Lake in Custer County, 8 miles south of Cotopaxi;
. Near Chapman Gulch in Pitkin County, 16 miles west of Leadville.

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