BOARD01955

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

able to call that additional amount of money, put it into the treasury
and repay the 5% of the project cost allocated to irrigation that
would otherwise have to be paid by Missour River Basin power reve-
nues. We think this is a very strong talking point with the Office
of Management and Budget and with the Congress. It is possible with
this kind of a provision that the entire costs of the project allo- I
cated to irrigation and M & I purposes will be repaid in full by
water users.

We have submitted forms of contracts to all water users within the
district. These water users have sent us back letters of commitment,
saying that they will purchase water in a certain amount on terms
substantially in accordance with the contract that has been sent out.

So that this board will have an idea of the broad base of support for
the project within the service area, approximately l80 persons and
entities have submitted commitments to our board. These include 23
ditch companies. These 23 ditch companies include the North Sterling
Irrigation District, which has about l60 landowners and is one of the
largest irrigation districts in the state. It includes the cities
that I mentioned earlier. It is a very impressive indication of
support and we are very pleased with this, but now we have the dif-
ficult job of trying to determine how the water supply will be allo-
cated.

This project is ready for construction. It has been planned and
planned. The railroad has been inventoried, the land has been inven-
toried, we know where it is, we know who owns it, we are ready to
go in and actually acquire land so that we can build facilities on
it. The district works very closely with the Bureau in all of this.
We sit in on meetings for a railroad relocation, we sit in on meetings
with landowners, so that we can go over the procedures for condemna-
tion.

The first order of business would be to acquire lands so that the
project could actually be built. An environmental impact statement
has been on file with the Council on Environmental Qualities since
June of 1970. Construction of the project, so far as we have been
able to determine from every source, has no adverse impact on the
environment.

I

The Narrows project is badly needed. This is attested to by the over
subscription for the Narrows water. It is attested to by the need
for flood control. The floods of 1965 and 1969 were very severe.

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