S10_11-15-04

• Basin: Statewide
• Title: SWSI Phase 1 Report - Section 10 Basin-Specific Options
• Date: 11/15/2004
• Author: CWCB
• SWSI - Doc Type: Final Report

Section 10
Basin-Specific Options
^ Water quality concerns in the lower basin also impact
agricultural uses.
10.1.3.2 Arkansas Basin Supply Availability
Issues
In the Arkansas Basin, the following issues were
identified regarding supply availability:
^ The Arkansas River Compact and existing uses and
water rights result in little to no opportunities to
develop new, reliable water supplies (see Sections 4
and 7).
^ RICDs and CWCB instream flow water rights may
impact the ability to manage water supplies upstream
of these water rights.
^ There will be full utilization of existing rights and
transbasin diversions (imports and exports) to meet
2030 demands and these are included in the
identified projects and processes.
^ Coordinated reservoir operations can assist in
providing for recreational and environmental needs
through flow management strategies as is currently
done between Turquoise, Twin Lakes, and Pueblo
Reservoirs.
Various water districts in the Arkansas Basin contain
conditional storage rights that date back to the early
1900s and extend to present day. As shown in
Table 10-2, there is 914,000 AF of existing conditional
storage rights in the basin, which far exceeds available
supplies. The numbers presented in this table describe
the total volume of conditional rights by priority time
period and not the number of individually decreed
conditional rights. These priority time periods are based
on adjudication dates and used solely for the purpose of
aggregating the numerous conditional rights into a table
for presentation. The number, rather than volume, of
conditional rights is presented in Appendix H.
Water Districts 11 and 14 in the Arkansas Basin have the
largest volume of conditional storage rights. This is
depicted in Table 10-2 and also presented graphically in
Appendix H. A total of nearly 730,000 AF, both with
priority dates of between 1940 and 1960, are present in
these two water districts. Figure 10-2 focuses on the
priority date of the conditional storage rights. The largest
portion of storage rights have priority dates of between
1940 and 1960, followed by the 1960 to 1980 time
period.
10.1.3.3 Arkansas Basin Summary of
Conditional Storage Rights
To portray the conditional storage rights present in the
Arkansas Basin, the area was described using water
districts as shown in Figure 10-1.
The 14 water districts in the Arkansas Basin can also be
described using the main stream systems, which are
shown in Table 10-1.
Table 10-1 Arkansas Basin Water Districts and Associated
Stream Names
~
10 Fountain/Chico Creeks
11 Arkansas River above Salida
12 Arkansas River between Salida and Canon Ciiy
13 Grape Creek
14 Huerfano River/Chico Creek
15 Saint Charles River
17 Horse Creek/Apishapa River/Purgatoire River
19 Puraatoire River
67 Two Butte/Big Sandy Creeks
79 Huerfano River
103 Arkansas River
J~~a
$~ole'ri~ice Wo~e' $upplY Initia~ive
A map of the locations of the conditional storage rights in
the Arkansas Basin is shown in Figure 10-3. Different
colored circles are used to represent the total volume of
conditional rights that each location holds. Most of the
rights are held in the western portion of the basin. This
figure also shows the locations of potential damsites in
the Arkansas Basin, as discussed in Section 10.1.3.4
below.
As described in Section 7, as a result of compact
limitations, over-appropriation, and lack of water
availability, it is unlikely that significant amounts of
conditional rights can be developed in the Arkansas
Basin as a primary source of water supply. These
conditional rights, however, can store water during very
wet periods if cost-effective storage can be developed.
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S:\REPORT\WORD PROCESSING\REPORT\S10 11-11-04.DOC 10-3