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, WOLFORD MOUNTAIN RESERVOIR PROJECT INTRODUCTION As with any water project, there were numerous issues which had to be addressed and resolved prior to construction of the Wolford Mountain Reservoir. For this review I have recounted three such issues, each of which may prove instructive for the Interim Committee's deliberations. OVERVIEW The Wolford Mountain Project is a dam, resulting in a 66,000 acre foot reservoir and associated facilities on Muddy Creek, a tributary to the Colorado. River. The Project is located five miles north of the Town of Kremmling along U.S. Highway 40. It was origina]Jy conceived as a compensation reservoir for water supply impacts to the West Slope resulting from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District's Municipal Subdistrict's Windy Gap Project. The Wolford Mountain Project is owned and operated by the Colorado River Water Conservation District (River District). SUBDISTRICT & RIVER DISTRICT In 1968 the members of the Municipal Subdistrict of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (the subdistrict) filed for water rights on the Colorado River for its planned Windy Gap Project. The Windy Gap project would pump water from the main stem of the Colorado River into the Northern District's existing Colorado-Big Thompson (C-Bn system for transport to the northern Front Range. The subdistrict claimed that it was not subject to the provisions of the Conservancy District Act which requires Conservancy Districts to mitigate for impacts created by the removal of water from the Colorado River drainage. The River District objected in the water court to this position, In 1980 after twelve years of unresolved legal battles, the subdistrict and the West Slope objectors agreed to settle their respective differences out of court. Essentially, the subdistrict agreed to fulfill its obligations under Colorado's Conservancy District Act. The subdistrict paid for head gate improvements for Grand County ranchers who would be impacted by the lower water levels in the Colorado River resulting from the Windy Gap Project. This enabled area ranches, including 1 OO-year~old, .century" ranches, to remain in operation. Without this mitigation several of these ranches likely would ceased operations. The subdistrict also paid for a new wastewater treatment facility for the Town of Hot Sulphur Springs. With the reduced flows in the Colorado River resulting from operation of the Windy Gap Project, Hot Sulphur could no longer meet its Clean Water Act permit conditions for waste water discharge. (NOTE: This mitigation was a condition of the Conservancy District Act; it did llil! result from Grand County's 1041 permitting of Windy Gap.)