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, . . . . STATE ~ COLORADO - Colorado Water Conservation Board Department of Natural Resources 721 Centennial Building 1313 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone: (303) 866-3441 FAX: (303) 866-4474 MEMORANDUM Roy Romer Governor James S. Lochhead Executive Director, DNR Oaries C. Lile, RE. Director, eWeB Peter H. Evans' Acting Director, eWeB TO: Colorado Water Conservation Board Members FROM: Bill Stanton and John Van Sciver DATE: July 6, 1998 SUBJECT: Agenda Item 17a. July 13-14, 1998, Board Meeting-- Dolores Water Conservancy District Introduction The Dolores Water Conservancy District is requesting a loan of $105,000, and a grant of $10,000 for a feasibility study to investigate development of additional water supplies. Staff is also recommending the Guidelines be revised to allow the CWCB more flexibility in setting the amount for feasibility study loans. Backl!round The Dolores Water Conservancy District (District) is located in Montezuma and Dolores Counties, in southwestern Colorado. The District serves approximately 28,000 acres of full service irrigation, approximately 35,000 acres of supplemental service irrigation, 7,500 acres of Ute Mountain Indian irrigation, and about 10,000 people. See attached map of District facilities. The District has been considering development of additional water supplies for some time. In 1983 the District obtained a CWCB authorization under HB 83-1102, in amount of $7 million. Because of changing economic conditions, only $1.4 million of the proposed project was completed, and the remaining $5.6 million was deauthorized. The District was invited to develop a new project, and to reapply for a CWCB loan. The proposed feasibility study is part of that reapplication process. The estimated total cost of the feasibility study is $150,000. The District would pay its portion of the cost out of cash reserves. The proposed study will investigate supplying water for uses that the project is NOT currently able to satisfy, either because of an inadequate water supply or lack of delivery facilities. These water uses include, but not limited to: (1) irrigation of farm lands adjacent to the Dolores Project lands which cannot be served due to insufficient water supply and the lack of distribution pipelines to deliver water to the land, (2) increased water for the fishery below McPhee Dam which could not be supplied due to an insufficient water supply, and (3) additional municipal water demands upstream of McPhee Dam and in San Juan County, Utah for which there is a water supply but no facilities to deliver the water. The feasibility study will investigate alternatives and select a plan to meet as many of these needs as possible within the financial constraints.