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. . . , IN REPLY REFER TO: BUREAU Of RECLAMATION Upper Colonldo Regional Office P.O. Box 11568 Salt Lake City. Utah 84147-0568 United States Department of the Interior .- - - . GJ-700jUC-721 JUN - 8 1993 Honorable Ben Nighthorse Campbell United States Senate Washington DC 20510-5001 Dear Senator Campbell: Thank you for your May 25, 1993, inquiry regarding your constituent, Mr. Joe Newman, and his interest in the Grand Valley Unit Salinity Control Program. Mr. Newman represents the Elmwood Lateral Ditch Company located within the Grand Valley Irrigation Company service area. The Grand Valley Irrigation Company owns and operates a system of canals which provides water to the Elmwood Ditch Company and more than 280 other independent laterals. In his letter, Mr. Newman seeks your assistance in obtaining funds for irrigation system improvements through the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation). As part of the Grand Valley Unit Salinity Control Program, Reclamation attempted to negotiate a contract with the Grand Valley Irrigation Company which would have provided for construction of the irrigation system improvements sought by Mr. Newman. Under this program, construction would have been 100 percent Federally funded. During 6 years of negotiations, Reclamation and the Grand Valley Irrigation Company Board of Directors listened to the concerns of the shareholders. While not all of these concerns could be accommodated, the Board of Directors and Reclamation felt that the proposed program. was feasible and should be implemented. Unfortunately, in July 1991, the contract was rejected by the shareholders. As a requirement of the authorizing legislation (Public Law 93-320 and Public Law 98-569) Reclamation is required to provide for perpetual operation and maintenance of the improved systems in order to ensure that the water quality objective is realized. This is typically accomplished by contracting with a local water user entity which has the legal authority to assess its members for operation and maintenance expenses and is capable of performing the work in an efficient manner. In the case of the Grand Valley Irrigation Company's service area, it was determined that the most cost effective manner to accomplish this requirement was to contract with the Grand Valley Irrigation Company rather than negotiate and administer up to 280 individual contracts with private lateral entities. In fact, this same contracting approach has been successfully applied to other similar water user organizations located in the Grand Valley Unit, most notably the Mesa County and Palisade Irrigation Districts.