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The District has finished putting in retaining walls along this portion of the inlet canal allowing access to the canal for the first time in 50 years. The cost of rebuilding the road $460,000. |
| P.L. 111-11 Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 Title IX - Bureau of Reclamation Authorizations - Subtitle B - Project Authorizations - Section 9105 - Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Act: |
BIG NEWS
Jackson Gulch funding passes Senate, House Water project receives $1.75 million in federal taxpayer money Kimberly Benedict Journal Staff Writer The Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Project took a big step forward on Oct. 15 when the U.S. Senate approved the 2009 Energy and Water appropriations bill. The bill grants $1.75 million dollars to the project. The House of Representatives approved the bill on Sept. 30. Jackson Gulch Reservoir supplies water to the town of Mancos, the Mancos Water Conservancy District, and the Mancos Rural Water Company. The reservoir is also the sole source of municipal water for Mesa Verde National Park. Jackson Gulch has been in the middle of rehabilitation for approximately six years, and the project is not cheap, according to Gary Kennedy, superintendent of the Mancos Water District. "We started this process about six years ago," Kennedy said. "We came up with a price tag of a little over $6 million at the time, we ended up with a total price of $8.2 million and today it is even higher." The primary goal of the project is infrastructure repair. Construction began on Jackson Gulch in 1941, and time has left the project in desperate need of additional work. "We have earthen sections that need to be rebuilt or realigned," Kennedy said. "They need to be lined with some kind of sealing material so they won't leak. We have approximately 30 per cent loss in the canals. Flow capacity is 2/3 of what it should be. If we can get that back up where it is designed to be, basically we can have a brand new canal system put back in." Locating funding for the project has been a complicated process, and the district has looked at many source for the finances needed to complete the project. "In 2005 we went to the people and they gave us a 5 mill increase," Kennedy said. "That is going to the rehabilitation to cover loans. We have already put about $1.2 million into the project. "They (the federal government) own it (Jackson Gulch), they have the title to it. We felt the federal government needed to put some funds into it. People could not have afforded it." The Jackson Gulch project was championed by Rep. John Salazar, who helped the project obtain funding authorization from congress, enabling the project to be wrapped into an appropriations bill. "The Mancos project is the main source of agricultural, domestic and recreational water in the Mancos Valley and for Mesa Verde National Park," said Congressman Salazar, in a prepared statement. "This is the best day of my legislative career. My constituents in that area depend on that water and the agricultural land it irrigates to make their living and to put food on our tables. They cannot afford to lose their water supply and I will continue to fight for them." In March of this year, congress authorized $8.25 million for the Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Act as part of the Omnibus Lands Bill of 2009. "The authorization goes through the Bureau of Reclamation," Kennedy said. "They submit authorizations for three years in advance." The authorization allowed the project to be wrapped into the 2010 federal budget. While this year's appropriation, which Jackson Gulch should receive next May, makes it easier for the project to continue to obtain federal funds, each year is a new process. "With this first appropriations, it makes it an ongoing funded project," Kennedy said. "That makes it easier to get funded in the future." The Jackson Gulch Project is one of the first Bureau of Reclamation projects in the West to find funding through appropriations, according to Kennedy, but the appropriation sets the stage for more federal money to flow into other water projects. "With our authorization plus the appropriations, this is huge for the Mancos Valley as far as our project," Kennedy said. "But it is also setting a precedent for all the other Bureau projects in the West, they will be able to get in there an benefit." For more information, contact the Mancos Water District at 533-7325. On the Net: Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Project, http://jacksongulchrehab.info/ Reach Kimberly Benedict at kimberlyb@cortezjournal.com. |
PUBLIC NOTICE INVITATION TO BID MANCOS WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT JACKSON GULCH INLET CANAL REHABILITATION 2010 IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT documents ready to go out for our project work this fall. INVITATION TO BID For more information call 970-533-7325 |
| The Board of Directors for the District discussed and voted unanimously to accept the latest repayment contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation at a special meeting July 6, 2010. |