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I. Selection and Approval of Parcels for Augmentation Credit <br />A. Colorado's Evaluation of Acreage <br />The Colorado Division of Water Resources (CDWR) has conducted several studies of irrigated <br />lands in the Lower Arkansas Basin over a period of several decades. During the Kansas v. <br />Colorado court case George Moravec developed mapping of irrigated acreage and <br />assignments to ditch service areas using 1985 aerial photos for the area between Pueblo and <br />the Kansas -Colorado stateline. Similarly, Spronk Water Engineers evaluated 1980 aerial <br />photos for the State of Kansas and developed mapping of irrigated lands in the same area. <br />Experts also reviewed historic aerial photos and data to assess changes in acreage during the <br />period just prior to the Arkansas River Compact through 1980. <br />In 1998 and again in 2002 and 2003, the CDWR conducted studies of irrigated lands in the <br />same areas using satellite imagery to classify irrigated and non -irrigated lands. Additionally, <br />the CDWR has developed an ongoing data collection system to determine the lands irrigated <br />by wells as a sole source of supply or as a supplemental source to surface water by <br />conducting farm verification interviews each winter with farm operators in the lower basin. The <br />work done by Colorado to identify and map irrigated lands has been critiqued by Kansas and <br />by Colorado water right owners and ditch companies and corrected as applicable. <br />The Colorado State Engineer believes that the result of these studies is a comprehensive set <br />of mapping that should be relied upon for evaluating claims for augmentation credit derived <br />from the removal of pre -compact water rights for replacement of stream depletions caused by <br />post -compact well pumping. <br />