The lease begins at an artificially low rate of $500 per acre foot (one-tenth the current rate) or $1.5 million a year, but can be adjusted upward to account for inflation and the rising price of water. Taking all this into account, Ted Williams of the Old Santa Fe Association Water Committee estimated in a New Mexican Op-Ed piece (8/28/04, p. A7) that the total payout over 50 years could easily be $225 million.