From email from the Colorado Water Conservation Board:
The Colorado Water Conservation Board is pleased to announce an additional round of grant funding under the Alternative Agricultural Water Transfer Grant Program. The purpose of this grant program is to advance various agricultural transfer methods as alternatives to permanent agricultural dry-up, including but not limited to: interruptible water supply agreements, long-term agricultural land fallowing, and water banks.
At its meeting on September 15th, the CWCB approved the program’s criteria and guidelines intended to provide guidance to those interested in applying for grant funds. Approved projects should provide usable and transferable information that will increase our understanding of how to successfully design transfer programs that provide a long-term, reliable water supply while sustaining meaningful agricultural production. The grant program was initiated in 2007 and to-date, the CWCB has awarded $1.5 million in grants to further alternative methods to the permanent dry up of irrigated lands. While these projects are still underway, valuable findings have been made. The project sponsors have identified areas where more work may be necessary before alternative transfer methods are more fully accepted by irrigators and cities. It is expected that these monies should fund projects that build upon work performed in the initial funding round. It should be emphasized that projects throughout the State of Colorado are eligible for funding whereas the first round of grant funding was limited to projects located within the Arkansas and South Plate river basins. An overview of the program, the criteria and guidelines and the grant application can be found on the CWCB website at: http://cwcb.state.co.us/LoansGrants/alternative-agricultural-water-transfer-methods-grants.
The Board has $1.5 million available for grants and will consider applications at its January 25-26, 2011 meeting. Applications must be delivered to the CWCB offices no later than November 26, 2010.
For more information about this program, please contact Todd Doherty at 303-866-3441 x 3210.