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<br />Durango Herald Online <br /> <br />Page 1 of I <br /> <br />THE DURANGO HERALD <br /> <br />'-"!IRIlII'A!\1'& <br /> <br /> <br />No ruling on request for recreational water for city <br /> <br />July 12, 2007 <br />By Joe Hanel I Herald Denver Bureau <br /> <br />CRAIG - Negotiations over a legal challenge to Durango's kayak park are scheduled to continue in August, delaying a <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board's decision about whether to grant the city's request for recreational water rights. <br /> <br />The city of Durango wants water rights for a 1,183-foot stretch of the Animas River that runs through Santa Rita Park, a run <br />that includes the popular Smelter Rapid. The application drew 53 objections, mostly out of concerns that Durango could keep <br />people upstream from using water. <br /> <br />The Colorado Water Conservation Board - the state's chief agency for water policy - announced last July that ilt was opposing <br />Durango's application for a so-called recreational in-channel diversion. <br /> <br />The two sides were set to fight it out in court two months ago, but they postponed a trial in favor of out-of-count, multiparty <br />negotiations, which began Wednesday in Durango. <br /> <br />Ted Kowalski, a program manager for the Colorado Water Conservation Board, who was negotiating in Durango on <br />Wednesday, said further negotiations on Durango's request for recreational water will be delayed until a planned meeting on <br />Aug. 6. <br /> <br />Negotiators in Durango came to a realization Wednesday evening that several technical issues must be addressed before <br />talks can continue, Kowalski said. <br /> <br />Negotiators want to clear up the percentage of time during the year when the city of Durango will make a call for water rights, <br />and they want a clearer idea of what the potential impacts those calls would cause to upstream users, Kowalsl<i said. Until <br />those issues are more clearly researched, negations are pointless, he said. <br /> <br />The CWCB, meeting in Craig, was standing by on Wednesday to hear from negotiators and accept or reject a settlement. But <br />the board went into a closed-to-the-public executive session and emerged - announcing that nothing had been decided. <br /> <br />The talks on Aug. 6 in Durango will be aimed at presenting a settlement decision to the CWCB, probably at the state board's <br />meeting in September, said Steve Harris, a water consultant with the Southwestern Water Conservation District. <br /> <br />The CWCB has opposed other cities' attempts to claim water rights for kayak parks. A 2006 law sponsored by Sen. Jim Isgar, <br />D-Hesperus, gave the board a more limited role in kayak-park cases, but Durango filed for its water rights before the law took <br />effect. That bill also places limits on the size of a recreational water right.The two sides are trying to avoid a costly trial. <br />Previous cases have dragged on for years, and a Gunnison case went to the state Supreme Court. <br /> <br />Herald Staff Writer Patrick Armijo contributed to this report. <br /> <br />Contents copyright @, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved. <br /> <br />http://www.durangoherald.comlasp-binlprintable _article _generation. asp ?article -path=/ne... <br /> <br />7/1212007 <br />