Water Update

Post date: May 01, 2012 7:15:54 PM

I apologize for not posting any updates in the last month, but we've been pretty busy. I brought the water in on March 25th and ran a recharge stream until April 9th, when we began delivering water to headgates. This has been a very unusual Spring, as I'm sure you all have noticed.

Our delivery demand was especially unusual, and we're currently diverting and delivering as much water as we normally do in early June. Bringing the water in so quickly early in the season has it's own set of problems, but we think we're past the worst of the gopher problems. As always, we depend upon our water users to help keep an eye on the banks, and if you notice any water where it's not supposed to be, please give me or your ditchrider a call so we can effect repairs.

Our U1 Lateral Spill project is fully operational and I'm very happy with the results. The Q/Q1 lateral relocation project is still giving us some difficulty, but I'm hopeful that we'll finally be able to start providing water to Q1 lateral tomorrow.

My primary concern right now is that with our odd weather and unusually high demand, we may have a shortened natural flow season. While we had 98% of our storage carry over, Winter flood control operations on the River might result in us having a less than 100% allotment this year. Even with a full allotment, a shortened natural flow season would result in using storage water to get through our peak irrigation period - and that could cause us to use most (if not all) of our storage this year. I have no doubt we'll have a sufficient supply this year, but going into the Winter with very little carry-over is a distinct possibility. Consequently, when we start drawing storage I plan on being extra conservative with our spills this year. That also means I'll be strictly enforcing our 48 hour notice to turn water into headgates.

Finally, I wanted to inform all of our shareholders that the Board of Directors has made an important change to our Company Policy regarding stock transfers. Effective immediately there will be a minimum $100.00 fee for accomplishing stock ownership transfers, plus additional charges if the transfer requires more than one hour of research and preparation by myself or the office staff. If you have any questions about this Policy change, as always please feel free to give us call.