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to new entity, and applying for new water rights to increase consumptive quantity of the water rights <br />portfolio. Developed a water rights comparable sales analysis to value underlying water rights for real <br />estate excise tax purposes. LAI staff Erik Borgen (prior to LAI). <br />Teanaway River Water Right Transactions; Kittitas County, WA. Team member executed several water <br />rights sales and leases in Upper Yakima River tributaries. Conducted all phases of the acquisition process <br />including negotiating deals, drafting and executing purchase and sale agreements, gaining funder <br />approval, closing, conducting beneficial use analyses, and transferring to state Trust Water Rights <br />Program. LAI staff Erik Borgen (prior to LAI). <br />Big Lake Water Rights Acquisition and Mitigation Bank; Big !Lake, WA. Team member conducted <br />negotiation and due diligence to acquire municipal water rights on behalf of Ecology. Drafted and <br />executed purchase and sale agreement. Drafted change application, beneficial use analysis, and draft <br />RDE to transfer acquired water rights into Trust Water Rights Program forthe purpose of developing a <br />mitigation bank in the Skagit Basin. Worked closely with Ecology personnel throughout project. LAI staff <br />Erik Borgen (prior to LAI). <br />Benchmark Farms; Grant County, WA. From 2016 to 2021, LAI <br />assisted Benchmark Farms (Benchmark) with procuring new state <br />wager rights for an area known as the High Hill that was dry land <br />farmed. Services included submitting a new water right application <br />for 10,000 acre-feet per year annual appropriation to irrigate 3,000 <br />acres of central pivots in Grant County near Grand Coulee. LAI <br />prepared a water system plan that presented the technical rationale <br />for the water right in the context of the four-part requirement for <br />new water right. The LAI team actively negotiated on behalf of <br />Benchmark with Ecology and the US Bureau of Reclamation, which <br />k . <br />operates the nearby Soap Lake Protective Works wells. After <br />extensive negotiations, Ecology ultimately issued permit G3 -30774P <br />in February 2021 far 5,500 acre-feet per year for 1,600 acres of <br />new, unmitigated water for irrigation. LAI also assisted <br />Benchmark in requesting a preliminary permit to drill a test well <br />and conduct two high-capacity pumping tests (5,200 gpm for 5 <br />days), secure a temporary permit to irrigate 600 acres during <br />the 2020 irrigation season, and submitting a permit change <br />application for additional points of withdrawal and expanded <br />place of use in February 2021 to the Grant County Conservancy <br />Board. LAI is assisting Benchmark with implementing the <br />groundwater monitoring provisions of the permit. LAI staff Eric <br />Weber, Katherine Ryf, and Kelsey Mach. <br />Kittitas County [ 9 } Water Banking Program Support <br />