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River District to funnel $8M to irrigation projects
The Colorado River District Board of Directors has agreed to act as a funding conduit for up to $8 million in federal Natural Resourc- es Conservaon Service (NRCS) funding to help fi- nance a series of water use efficiency projects in four federal irrigaon projects in the Lower Gunnison Basin.
Last year, the River District was awarded $8 million of grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2014 Farm Bill that will leverage up to $50 million worth of work in cooperaon with, and other funding from, the Bureau of Reclamaon and the Colorado River Basin Salinity Program.
The Board approved a new type of financial coop- erave agreement called an “Alternave Funding Arrangement” that enables the River District to act as an agent of the NRCS.
The Board directed staff to manage all of the NRCS funding for the benefit of the irrigaon districts in the four focus areas..
The four beneficiary irrigation project areas include the Uncompahgre Valley, Bostwick Park, the North Fork Valley and the Crawford Country. Deputy Chief Engineer Dave Kanzer and Water Resources Specialist Sonja Chavez have been the quarterbacks in the collaborative effort to perform mod- ernizaon and system opmizaon acvies that will increase agricultural water use efficiency within the Lower Gunnison Basin.
Kanzer noted that the irrigaon districts can lose more than 30 percent of their water to seepage and deep percolation.
The Regional Conservaon Partnership Program (RCPP) funding from the NRCS will help minimize those losses by modernizing river diversions and water conveyance and deliveries for farm use. This work, combined with en- hanced management of reservoir releases, is projected to provide beneficial results related to increased agricultural producon, improved stream flows, beer water quality, and improved river habitat that, among other benefits, will help threatened and endangered fish species.
“In my view, this has to be done for the future of our agricultural producers in the basin,” said Eric Kuhn, General Manager of the River District.
Marc Catlin, River District Director from Montrose County, said: “The future is here, and we have got to start doing these things if we are going to maintain agriculture on the Western Slope.”
He called for the program to work with younger producers to help them learn how to farm with new technology.
“This is a big deal,” said Dave Merri, Director from Garfield County. “This is the product of 20 years of work in the Gunnison Basin. It is a great way to go ahead and put good stuff on the ground.”
Gunnison County Director Bill Trampe urged that the program provide an economic analysis of projects to help educate others to the pluses and minuses of the modernisations.
Tom Kay, an organic agricultural producer from Hotch- kiss, who has already implemented irrigation improvements, said his growing season has been lengthened due to beer water management that effecvely has stretched his water supplies. “Without Dave Kanzer and Sonja Chavez, this would be nowhere,” Kay said of the River District staff working on the project.
