2014-04-23_REVISION - M2000041 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Depletions to the aquifer under Southwest Farms, Inc. property from mining activities was identified in 2008 and a verbal agreement was made between Southwest Farms, Inc. and Stonewall Springs Quarry (Mark Morley) to attempt to utilize the Excelsior Ditch. A plan was put together with AGUA, (Deere & Ault, Mark McLean, the DWR, and Southwest Farms, Inc. This required Southwest Farms, Inc. purchasing other higher cost waters and along with AGUA operating the ditch. As the pit continued to expand, this solution became overly cumbersome and costly to continue. In 2012 Fremont Paving, the DRMS (Tim Cazier), the DWR (Jon Van Oort) and Southwest Farms, Inc. (John Sliman) met to discuss solutions to address the increasing impacts. In general, the agreement was for Evans #2 to install a piping system to discharge portions of their dewatering water as required into the Excelsior Ditch and for Southwest Farms, Inc. to pump water from the ditch. This was to mitigate for the increased cost and decreased pumping capacity in the the four irrigation wells (1405131, 1405132, 1405208, and 1405134) at Southwest Farms, Inc. The table below provides a summary of the annual water pumped from the wells and Excelsior Ditch and the electrical costs for the previous three years. Item year 2011 12012 2013 Pumping Well Volume in Acre -Feet 1405131 27.2 173.5 63.5 1405132 274.6 _ 226.6 85.33 — 1405208 121.6 33.7 2.3— 1 � Ditch � -- 161.0 -- � 20.0 — 0.0 Total 584.4 1453.9 1151.2 Electric Costs $ /kWh Electric Costs 0.106 0.135 0.17 The above data illustrates impacts to the aquifer as follows: • The volume of water that was able to be pumped in 2013 was significantly less than in 2011 and the unit cost to pump the water was significantly higher. The increase in cost is much higher than the increased cost from the power company. The higher pumping cost is due to a decrease in the groundwater