Economic and Conservation Evaluation of Capital Renovation Projects: Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2 (San Benito) – Infrastructure Rehabilitation – Preliminary

Initial construction costs and net annual changes in operating and maintenance expenses are identified for a five-component capital renovation project proposed by Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2, (a.k.a. San Benito) to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). The proposed project involves rehabilitating 42+ miles of canals, laterals, and pipelines. Both nominal and real estimates of water and energy savings and expected economic and financial costs of those savings are identified throughout the anticipated useful lives for all five components of the proposed project. Sensitivity results for both the cost of water savings and cost of energy savings are presented for several important parameters.

Annual water and energy savings forthcoming from the total project are estimated, using amortization procedures, to be 19,580 ac-ft of water per year and 2,151,277,209 BTUs (630,503 kwh) of energy per year. The calculated economic and financial cost of water savings is estimated to be $45.60 per ac-ft. The calculated economic and financial cost of energy savings is estimated at $0.0004399 per BTU ($1.501 per kwh).

In addition, expected real (vs nominal) values are indicated for the Bureau of Reclamation’s three principal evaluation measures specified in the United States Public Law 106-576 legislation. The aggregate initial construction cost per ac-ft of water savings measure is $46.98 per ac-ft of water savings. The aggregate initial construction cost per BTU (kwh) of energy savings measure is $0.0004275 per BTU ($1.459 per kwh). The aggregate ratio of initial construction costs per dollar of total annual economic savings is estimated to be -9.04.