North Platte October24minutesrev1

• Basin Roundtable: North Platte
• Title: Minutes
• Date: 10/24/2006
• Basin Roundtables - Doc Type: Minutes

North Platte Basin Roundtable Meeting 10-24-06

South Platte and the North Platte basins. Taking into consideration the requirements of
the North Platte Decree, NOlih Platte River Basin in Jackson County agreements in the
Three State Agreement for new water related activities are as follows. (Note that the
Laramie River segment of the North Platte River Basin agreements are included in the
South Platte agreements.)
. Agricultural Water Use: Depletions associated with the irrigation of up to
134,467 acres constitute existing uses and depletions associated with the irrigation
of between 134,468 and 145,000 acres in Jackson County constitute new water
related activities. Net irrigation depletions are diversions less return flows.
. Municipal and Industrial (M&I): The population baseline for Jackson County is
2022 people and while it is not expected we will exceed that during the First
Increment, if Jackson County population reaches 1900, Colorado will have to
present a M&I new depletion plan to the Governance Committee for approval. If
that occurs, we have agreed to the "distribution of the depletive effects" defined
for the South Platte Basin. Methodology assumes new M&I uses to be .27 acre-
feet per capita per year and CU is 35% of gross water use, unless otherwise
decided by the Governance Committee. The document recognizes that these
assumptions likely overstate Jackson County water use.
. Piscatorial, wildlife, and other environmental uses(PWEU): Ifuse is not
incidental to an existing or new irrigation use, such uses implemented after July 1,
1977 will constitute new water related activities. It is expected that all new
PWEU's will have a federal nexus. A federal nexus includes such things as a 404
pennit, ditch easement over FS or BLM land or any activity the "ensnares or
endears you to the Federal Government" as per Kowalski. Depletions associated
with new water related PWEU activities will be determined by the Colorado
Division of Water Resources from information on actual annual depletions. will
determine net depletions based on actual net depletions. The Colorado Division
of Water Resources and Division 6 will also have to monitor and report on any
non-nexus piscatorial, wildlife and other environmental uses.
. Because it is believed unlikely that new North Platte depletions will occur in the
First Increment, as of December 2005, the North Platte had not proposed a
specific mitigation plan.

Questions were asked regarding how the high altitude crop CU coefficients research
might impact the Jackson County requirements. Ted Kowalski noted that the new high
altitude finding should not impact the agreement which is based on number of irrigated
acres. However, if we actually hit the 134,468 irrigated acres point and get into new
water related activities that would require mitigation plans, the high altitude coefficients
might come into consideration. Ted suggests we might want to consider patiicipation in
the South Platte Water Related Activities Program. Kent Crowder suggested we might
want to invite a representative of SPWRAP to attend and present at one of our roundtable
meetings to exhibit a good faith effort to participate in that group (with which the Platte
River Recovery Program requires Colorado participate as a member).

3