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<br />Well History 101 <br />Thc South Platte River has an alluvial aquifer below and near it that is a few miles to ten <br />miles wide. If you drill 34-40 feet down you \vill reach water and be ill the shallow aquifer. <br />In 1859 gold miners stalted the first ditch that was on Clear Creek. It was about two miles <br />long and it irrigated two acres of ground and made $2,000 in today's dollars. Now there are <br />ditches all over. The water rights are adjudicated by the date the ditch \Vas completed. The <br />oldest water right gets served then the next oldest and so on based on the priority date, <br />Generally speaking the administration of water in the basin is that ditches get water April 1st <br />to October 31 ~t and reservoirs get water from November 1 - tv1arch 31 st. However, Coloradols <br />arid climate severely limits watcr availability during times of drought. Severe dry periods <br />during the 1930s and 1950s led to the construction of thousands of irrigation wells that <br />utilized shallow groundw'aler resources to supplemcnt \vater from rivcrs and strcams. V>lcll <br />pumping continued unrestricted until 1969 \vhcn the Colorado Legislaturc enactcd laws that <br />incorporated these shallow, '~iunior" groundwater \vells into the priority system \\'ith existing <br />"senior" ditch and reservoir companies. <br /> <br />Legislatjve Action <br />In an attempt to maximize utilization of both surface and groundwater, the Colorado <br />Legislature passed the Watcr Rights Detennination and Administration Act of 1969. This Act <br />provided for plans of augmentation to allow out of priority or "j unior" \vater users to continue <br />to pump their wells if the resLllting depletion was replaced in the river so no injury occUlTed to <br />senior water users. The Central Colorado Water Conservancy District was formed by public <br />petition and vote in 1965, under the authority of the 1937 Water Conservancy Act. The <br />District now includes over 750 square miles in Adams, Morgan, and Weld Counties. In 1973, <br />the Groundwater Management Subdistrict \Vas fom1ed to administer a plan for augmentation <br />for wells in the South Platte Basin. The Subdistrict contains over 300 square miles and <br />augments approximately 1,000 wells. The numbers to replace the depletion to the South Platte <br />doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled. Augmentation groups like the Groundwater <br />Appropriators of the South Platte were unable to continue to operate. About 1500 of 5 ,000 to <br />6,000 wells \vent out of business right then. The Colorado Supreme Court contributed to the <br />uncertainty by rllling in Empire Lodge v. Moyers. This lawsuit changed lenient approval of <br />well augmentation plans by the State Engineer. The ruling forced augmcntation plans to be <br />approved on a permanent basis by the \Vater Court. <br /> <br />ccweD was able to continue its augmentation of its 1000 wells as it had enough water <br />supplies to obtain a court decreed Pennanent Plan of Augmentation by the Division Onc <br />Water Court in May of 2005. The new requirements of augmentation have still caused <br />CCWCD to cut its members watcr supply in half. <br /> <br />Drought in the South Platte Basin Complicates things further <br />The drought of2000 to 2003 \vas the driest event in over 300 years and has gripped our region <br />and much of the western United States. CC\VCD's 1,000 member well O\Vners have been in a <br />quandary and wondering if would thcy have reliable sources of in-igation water. They also <br />wonder hmv the conservancy district would protect their ability to pump existing wells. <br />CCWCD uses money collected from assessments to buy ,vater and lcase water. Due to tighter <br />