Laserfiche WebLink
Depletions to the aquifer under Southwest Farms, Inc. property from mining activities <br />was identified in 2008 and a verbal agreement was made between Southwest Farms, <br />Inc. and Stonewall Springs Quarry (Mark Morley) to attempt to utilize the Excelsior <br />Ditch. A plan was put together with AGUA, (Deere & Ault, Mark McLean, the DWR, and <br />Southwest Farms, Inc. This required Southwest Farms, Inc. purchasing other higher <br />cost waters and along with AGUA operating the ditch. <br />As the pit continued to expand, this solution became overly cumbersome and costly to <br />continue. In 2012 Fremont Paving, the DRMS (Tim Cazier), the DWR (Jon Van Oort) <br />and Southwest Farms, Inc. (John Sliman) met to discuss solutions to address the <br />increasing impacts. In general, the agreement was for Evans #2 to install a piping <br />system to discharge portions of their dewatering water as required into the Excelsior <br />Ditch and for Southwest Farms, Inc. to pump water from the ditch. This was to mitigate <br />for the increased cost and decreased pumping capacity in the the four irrigation wells <br />(1405131, 1405132, 1405208, and 1405134) at Southwest Farms, Inc. The table below <br />provides a summary of the annual water pumped from the wells and Excelsior Ditch and <br />the electrical costs for the previous three years. <br />Item <br />- -- - - -- <br />year <br />- - - - - - - -- - <br />2011 <br />12012 <br />i 2013 <br />Pumping Well <br />Volume in Acre -Feet <br />1405131 <br />27.2 <br />! 173.5 <br />63.5 <br />E 11405132 <br />�- - - - - -- - - -- -- -- <br />1274.6- <br />- -- <br />226.6 <br />; - - - - - <br />85.33 j <br />1405208 <br />121.6 <br />133.7 <br />E <br />i 2.3 <br />Ditch <br />161.0 <br />120.0 <br />10.0 <br />Total <br />1584.4 <br />1453.9 <br />151.2 <br />Electric Costs <br />$ /kWh <br />Electric Costs <br />1 0.106 <br />10.135 <br />' 0.17 <br />------ --- - -.___ <br />The above data illustrates impacts to the aquifer as follows: <br />• The volume of water that was able to be pumped in 2013 was significantly less <br />than in 2011 and the unit cost to pump the water was significantly higher. The <br />increase in cost is much higher than the increased cost from the power <br />company. The higher pumping cost is due to a decrease in the groundwater <br />