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<br />MWSl Project <br />Interruptible Supply Framework Report - DRAFT <br /> <br />August 21, 1995 <br /> <br />FWS I Stillwater Wildlife Refuge: The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) <br />and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have proposed interruptible supply strategies for <br />transferring water from the agricultural community to the Stillwater Refuge, operated <br />by the Fish and Wildlife Service. A source of funding has been an obstacle in the <br />ad vancement of this plan, <br /> <br />Edwards Aquifer: EDF has made a proposal to manage the Edwards Aquifer in <br />southern Texas using interruptible supply contracts, The sellers would include all users <br />of the aquifer and the trigger is proposed to be the aquifer level. This scheme has not <br />been pursued by the state legislature, which has been mandated to develop a <br />management plan for the aquifer, <br /> <br />Grand Junction / Redlands: In 1979, the City of Grand Junction entered into <br />an open-ended contract with Redlands Water and Power Company, At the discretion of <br />the City, Redland' s water can be divened to the City, The point of diversion for the <br />two entities is nearly at the same location on the river. An annual payment is made by <br />the City to the Water and Power Company for this option. When a transfer occurs and <br />as a result, Redlands is required to purchase power, the City must compensate <br />Redlands over and above any losses incurred, The City is responsi~le for all <br />transaction costs related to the transfer application. In the past 15 years, the option has <br />never been exercised, <br /> <br />MWD I PVID: Negotiations have taken place between MWD and the Palo <br />Verde Irrigation District (PVID) for a long-term interruptible supply arrangement. <br />These negotiations started in the mid-1980's, The proposed contract had a length of 35 <br />years and included an initial payment in addition to a payment when the option was <br />exercised, Due to concerns on the pan of PVID farmers, a two-year land fallowing <br />agreement was made in order to assess the impacts of short-term transfers. During <br />1993-1994,93,000 AF/year of water was transferred and approximately 22% of the <br />cropped acreage was fallowed. Initial results show that third-party impacts have been <br />minor, probably due in part to the fact that fallowed acreage was a small fraction of a <br />much larger agricultural region (Pinnes, 1994), <br /> <br />EBMUD: Interruptible supply contracts were pursued by the East Bay Municipal <br />Utility District (EBMUD) with irrigation water users in the late 1980's, The proposed <br />trigger was conditions when a year was classified as "critically dry", according to the <br />State's supply index, Issues involved in these negotiations include 1) opposition to <br />transferring any water for municipal use (even if temporary), 2) low price, 3) concerns <br />about potential loss of water rights, and 4) salt water intrusion into the aquifer if <br />groundwater were used as a replacement supply (pinnes, 1994), These options are not <br />currently being pursued, <br /> <br />Yakima River Basin: EDF has proposed interruptible supply arrangements in <br />order to maintain minimum instream flows on the Yakima River (Willey and Diamant, <br />1994), Funding has been a major issue for this effort. <br /> <br />Hvdrosphere Resource Consultants <br /> <br />10 <br />