A $7 million plan that would create 4,000 additional acres of irrigable ag lands within Montezuma and Dolores counties has been drafted by the Dolores Water Conservancy board, the special-district board that manages McPhee Reservoir.

Outlined in a one-inch-thick feasibility study, the complex project involves purchasing water from Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company, and then installing a pump station at Totten Lake to draw additional shares of water up into a series of canals for delivery to dry-land bean and alfalfa farmers adjacent to the Dove Creek canal.

The recently completed feasibility study by Harris Engineering was presented to the DWCD board at its regular meeting Thursday night.

Those farmers and property owners are within the district, but do not have access to water stored in McPhee because it is all allocated.

Some 50 landowners representing approximately 13,000 acres of farmable land now without irrigation have signed up for the chance to receive a portion of the water if the deal goes through, which is contingent on the DWCD obtaining a $6 million loan from the Colorado Water Conservancy Board. The state agency provides financing for water projects that augment agriculture and recreation.

The DWCD has committed $2 million from existing funds derived from taxes and fees to use project water, and will pitch its plan for the additional funding to the CWCB board of directors at their November meeting in Denver. If given the go-ahead, construction on the project, studied for the past five years, could begin by 2002.

"I’m cautiously optimistic that this will happen," said Don Schwindt, board president of DWCD.

If it does, a hearing between applicants and the board will be held to determine which acreage is best suited to receive the water, a process that considers a variety of factors, such as proximity to lateral lines, feasibility, costs, and whether those lands are within the district.

"We’ve received applications for three times the amount of acreage this project would provide, so that will be decided through the public-hearing process on where the water will go," said John Porter, manager for McPhee.

Repayment of $1 million of the loan will fall to the farmers granted the new irrigation water, who must pay $250 per acre annually for the water for 10 years, plus the annual operation and maintenance fees. Present McPhee irrigators are only required to pay the O&M fees.

"The applicants are aware of the $250 per acre, whereas the present irrigators did not have to do that," Porter said.

The remaining $5 million would be repaid from district user fees collected over a 30-year period at 2 percent interest, according to the proposal.

The study has DWCD purchasing approximately 8,000 acre-feet of water from the MVIC for $2.2 million. Six thousand acre-feet of that water is already stored in McPhee Reservoir, but is undeveloped by MVIC, prompting them to reach an agreement to sell it to the DWCD, which can use the McPhee project to deliver it to dryland farmers in the community.

MVIC pulls its water reserves out of the Dolores River basin from the Great Cut Dike, part of the pioneer water project built in 1889.

An additional 1,840 acre-feet would be purchased from MVIC annually, reserves now stored in Totten Lake. The reservoir lies 150 feet below the Towaoc-Highline canal, the irrigation delivery system needed for the water to reach outlying farmers; therefore a pumping station will have to be built for the project, expected to cost $450,000.