RGDSS_overview - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The Rio Grande Compact sets annual state line delivery obligations for Colorado based on the amount of flow at the index gaging stations within Colorado. Compact deliveries are not required to strictly adhere to the compact delivery tables on an annual basis; therefore, the compact accounts for over-deliveries (credits) and under-deliveries (debits) that may be carried forward. Provisions of the compact relate Colorado's compact obligations and its accumulation of credits and debits to storage levels at the Rio Grande Project, a major storage and irrigation project in New Mexico and Texas of which Elephant Butte Reservoir is the major feature. A major provision of the compact permits Colorado to increase consumptive uses of water from the Rio Grande and the Conejos River to the extent that deliveries to the state line are satisfied or replaced with deliveries from the Closed Basin Project. 4.2 Ability to Meet Compact Obligations Colorado had difficulty in meeting its compact obligations from 1952 through the onset of rigorous surface water administration in 1968. During this time, Colorado accrued a substantial debit under the compact. Several studies have been performed to better understand why Colorado's debits were so much greater than anticipated. Although a comprehensive review of this information was beyond the scope of this feasibility study, the major events are described here. Because of the large debits accrued by Colorado from 1952 through the mid-1960s, a lawsuit was filed (Texas and New Mexico v. Colorado) in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966 with Colorado's debt of almost 945,000 acre-feet as the central issue. This action led to a number of events over the next 20 years: 1968 The U.S. Supreme Court approved a stipulation between Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico that the pending litigation would be stayed as long as Colorado met its compact delivery obligation each and every year without incurring any further debt of water. Therefore, since 1967 Colorado water administrators have treated the compact delivery obligation as the paramount commitment on the rivers and have delivered water for compact purposes instead of allowing unrestricted diversions by Colorado water users. Colorado has succeeded in meeting this delivery obligation, but only at enormous cost in water to pre-compact surface water rights. 1970 The Colorado State Engineer's Office stopped issuing new well permits for the non-Closed Basin aquifers and the Closed Basin confined aquifer. 1972 The CWCB funded a program from the construction fund to cap and valve flowing small and large capacity stock, domestic, and irrigation wells to conserve the head in the confined aquifer. 1975 The Colorado State Engineer proposed rules for compact administration and for administering ground water in the valley. 1981 The Colorado State Engineer's Office stopped issuing new well permits for the Closed Basin unconfined aquifer. 1983 After a lengthy trial initiated in 1979 on the proposed rules, the Colorado Supreme Court largely approved the proposed rules for compact administration, but disapproved the rules for curtailing ground water use on the grounds that the State Engineer had improperly concluded that he was not permitted to consider a requirement that senior priority surface water users drill wells as a means of diversion prior to the curtailment of the junior priority ground water rights. The Colorado Supreme Court remanded the proposed rules back to the State Engineer for further consideration. 1985