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2 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Hi gh Pl ai ns i rri gators have long recogni zed the importance of water management in thei r farm enterpri ses. The extent of i ncorporati on of best available practices in the Baseline is a significant measure of that aware- ness. The methods of local water supply augmentation showing most promise for the area were examined qual Hatively by the General Contractor, and are described briefly below. Some of the on-farm practices described are prac- ticed or may be available as measures to achieve enhanced irrigation and land management effi ci encies. However, because they al so contri bute to recharge and/or conservation of runoff, they are included here as local augmentation possibil Hies. The principal assumption underlying Strategy Three was that water demand reduction strategies (MS-l and 2) would not fully meet subregional, regional, or national goals for agricultural production and related economic growth and vitality. Therefore, purposeful water supply augmentation developments at the local level should be investigated. These include weather or precipitation modification (to the extent not already in practice as might be reflected in the Baseline), water banking, water harvesting, vegetative and evaporation management, and other methods either on-farm or multi-farm, watershed or subregional scales. This option in the array of water management changes injected into the analysis could take the form of actions by farmers, local water management districts, state agencies, or the federal government, or some combination of private and public sector programs. Some local augmentation methods are already being implemented by indivi- dual farmers, e.g., conjunctive use of playa waters. Others would requi re initiatives, participation and/or funding support by local, state or federal agencies. Weather modification and desalinization programs are good examples of the latter. Any of these programs al ready authorized and available are included in the Baseline projections, particularly those available for adop- tion by individual farmers at their own discretion. Programs which require regional or subregional publicly sponsored action (e.g. desalination) were considered as new programs for analysis. A brief summary of assessed water supply augmentation methods and thei r potential for future use in the High Plains Region follows: