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, .. OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STATE OF COLORl\DO ~ '. Department of Natural Resources 1313 Sherman Street, Room 718 Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone' (3031 866-3311 TDD, 13031 866-3543 Fa" 13031866-2115 DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL BRIEFING PAPER ON THE PROPOSED GREAT SAND DUNES RESOURCES NATIONAL PARK AND THE ADJACENT PRIVATE LANDS ~~v~,~~~s January 25, 2000 Greg E. Walcher Executive Director INTRODUCTION The Great Sands Dunes National Monument is a national treasure that has an exceptional dune mass and several related features. The hydrology ofthe streams on the dunes is also quite unique. Groundwater development of the aquifers adjacent to the dunes could possibly change that hydrology and threaten the dunes. .,,--.') ',~' HYDROLOGY The streams that enter the Monument are all encumbered by federal reserved rights decreed to the U.S.A. on June 30, 1989 in the Division III Water Court in Case 81CW164. This decree provides monthly instream flows for each of these streams which are enforceable against other surface diversions. The issue of groundwater development and its potential to interfere with the streams flowing through the Monument is paramount. (Attachment 1: decree for reserved rights). There is little documentation of the hydrology of the streams involved in the Monument because of the lack of historical streamflow data. Gages have been recently installed on several of the major streams and data is now being collected. (Attachment 2: most recent data). The two transbasin, surface diversions, which were decreed in 1914, affect the sand dunes hydrology in the extreme headwaters of Medano Creek. There are also several undecreed ponds at the canyon mouth of Sand Creek which have been curtailed on occasion to provide flow to the dunes reach ofthe stream. The transbasin diversions have strict limits as to the amount and duration of their diversion across the Sangre de Cristo Range into the Wet Mountain Valley. They are allowed to divert from May 15 to July 15 of each year. (Attachment 3: decree and agreement for transbasin diversions). The historical annual record for the diversions is available but they average approximately eleven hundred acre feet per year. There are numerous surface diversions from streams in private lands lying west and north of the Monument but they do not have any significant affect on the dune mass or the hydrology. (Attachment 4: water rights). ~("'. -) '-~'.1\, ..-" BACA GRANT ISSUES The Baca Grant lies adjacent to the Monument to the northwest of the dune mass. Several proposals have been made by the current and fo~er owners to develop the Board of Land Commissioners. Division of Minerals & Geology/Geologica) Survey Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. Colorado State Parks. Soil Conservation Board Water Conservation Board. Division of Water Resources. Division of Wildlife