SPDSS_Feasibility_20011001

• Title: SPDSS Feasibility Study
• Description: This report presents the results of an investigation to determine the feasibility of developing a decision support system for the South Platte and North Platte River basins in Colorado
• Decision Support - Doc Type: Study
• Date: 10/1/2001
• DSS: South Platte
• Basin: South Platte
• Contract/PO #: C153984A
• Bill Number: SB01-157, HB02-1152, SB03-110, HB04-1221, SB05-084, HB06-1313, SB07-122
• Prepared By: Brown and Caldwell, CDM, Leonard Rice Engineering, Riverside Technology inc

3.6 SURFACE WATER RIGHTS
Water Rights records are important as a basic water resource data need and for use in water
rights administration and modeling. For the purposes of the SPDSS, this category of data
includes (1) the State's water rights tabulation, (2) CWCB instream flow appropriations, and
(3) call records maintained by the State. Water rights data form the basis for identifying the key
physical and legal attributes of each decreed water right in Division 1 and Water District 47, and
this information provides the operational information necessary to both administer water rights
and simulate the operation of the rights under historic and future conditions. Water rights
administration is one of the more important needs to address in developing and implementing the
SPDSS.
3.6.1 Description and Inventory of Available Data
The water rights tabulation is a database maintained in HydroBase by the DWR that contains
pertinent aspects of the decreed water rights in Colorado. Table B-5 in Appendix B is a
summary of the net water rights in the South Platte and North Platte River basins. The net water
rights are the water rights remaining at a given structure after accounting for all transfers to and
from the structure. As with the other information extracted from HydroBase, the reported
information on net water rights are based on the current water rights database for Division 1 and
Water District 47.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) is responsible for the appropriation,
acquisition and protection of instream flow and natural lake level water rights to preserve the
natural environment to a reasonable degree. Since the creation of the State's Instream Flow
Program in 1973, the CWCB has appropriated instream flow water rights and natural lake levels
on more than 8,000 miles of streams and 486 natural lakes in the state. Within the South Platte
River basin, the CWCB has appropriated 234 instream flow water rights (Colorado Water
Conservation Board 1996) on both the mainstem and tributaries throughout the basin. The
CWCB maintains its own database for these water rights that should be incorporated into
HydroBase during SPDSS implementation.
River call records maintained by Division 1 and Water District 47 indicate for a given time
period the most senior water right in a given river reach whose demand is not satisfied. Call
records provide an indication of administration of water rights on a river system and are valuable
for understanding both historic and future water right settings. In addition, consideration should
be given to recording dry stream reaches since these can result in futile call conditions. These
data are not currently included in HydroBase.
3.6.2 Data Assessment
The available water rights records were reviewed for spatial coverage throughout Division 1 and
Water District 47, the period of record available, the completeness of available records, and the
overall reliability of the data.
p:data\gen\spdss~final report\chapter 3.doc 3 -13
October 31, 2001