Minutes Jan 200 CBRT final - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

into afree-for-all, he believes Colorado needs additional laws to permit temporary water transfers from agricultural to municipal uses. i. Aaron Million's proposed Flaming Gorge Pumpback. This could benefit the Western Slope since by delivering more water to the Front Range, and defer the Front Range's need to divert additional water from the Western Slope. However, pumping 150,000-200,000 of from Flaming Gorge annually could cause the Upper Basin states to fail to deliver 75 maf every 10 years. He believes it could take up to 100 years to determine this. 14. Eagle Water and Sanitation Agreement with Denver. Rick Sackbauer of Vail Resorts, a former board member of the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, discussed the settlement reached in Denver 2007 between the Eagle Water and Sanitation District (Eagle) and Denver. a. Denver relinquished conditional water rights that it held above Minturn, Gihllan and Redcliff to the Eagle River, and also conditional water rights it held in the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area east of Vail. b. Denver retained the rights to withdraw 200 cfs from the Eagle River in order to fill a proposed joint-use reservoir near Wolcott That would also benefit the Western Slope. Denver also retained the right to fill the Wolcott Reservoir with water from the Piney River, which enters the Colorado just upstream of State Bridge. The proposed Wolcott Reservoir would provide replacement water for, or augment, Denver's plan to aiulually pump up to an additiona160,000 additional acre feet through the Roberts Tuiulel from Dillon Reservoir to the South Platte. The proposed Wolcott Reservoir could hold up to 350,000 acre feet. But it would likely be developed at a smaller size. Releases from the Wolcott Reservoir would augment water that Denver would pump back from Green Mountain Reservoir to Dillon Reservoir. Wolcott would not be a new source of water to be pumped over the Continental Divide from the Eagle River Basin. d. Louis Meyer questioned why Eagle settled in light of the October 22, 2007, Colorado Supreme Court decision in Pagos~a Water ajzd San~tatiorl Distr ict v. Trout Ur~lih~~ted, Case No. 06SA338 (referenced below as Pcrgosa v. Tt~. li1 the case, the Colorado Supreme Court introduced new tests in municipal water rights filings for reasonable planning periods, populations projections and the available unappropriated water reasonably necessary to serve that population. If Eagle County had won the trial, Denver could have lost all of its conditional water rights in the Eagle River drainage. Chips Barry of Denver Water mentioned to Rick Sackbauer that he was very concerned by Pagos~a v. TU; by settling, Denver avoided a court n~ling. CBRT member Chuck Ogilby resigned from the Eagle Water and Sanitation District board because he disagreed with its decision to settle the case with Denver. 15. Global Settlement Report by Mediator John Bickerman. Over the last 9 months, the participants have identified what information is needed, and the range of alternatives. The Grand County Stream Management Plan, which will be discussed at the April CBRT meeting, will provide useful data to this end. The major issues being negotiated are how the Front Range can come up with additional water to meet its continued growth, while the Western Slope seeks to limit future interbasin transfers to the Eastern Slope. Louis Meyer mentioned that the Western Slope and the public are not participating at these meetings, and Bickerman replied that the groups are already large for effective negotiation. Bickerman reconu7lended that the alternatives I:AInterbasin Compact Cominittee~Basin Roundtables\Colorado~Minutes~Ivlumtes Tan 200 CBRT fuial.doc 4 4~2,