Minutes May 2008 CBRT - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

b. Bruce Whitehead who chairs the Southwest Water Conservancy District and has been the Division Engineer for Water Division 7 in Durango since December of 2005. Travis Smith, the current Board Chair of the CWCB and a ranch owner in the Rio Grande basin, was reappointed. He is the Superintendent of the San Luis Valley Irrigation District. d. See http://cwcb.state.co.us/Board/BoardMembers/BoardMembersGlance/ for biographical sketches of the CWCB Board including Ex-Officio member Harris Sherman. 14. Discussion of Water Supply Reserve Account Grant Requests a. West Divide Water Conservancy District - X40,000 for feasibility study for Thompson Creek reservoirs. Kerry Sundeen, engineer with the West Divide Water Conservancy District, requested $40,000 to pay for engineering feasibility studies for three reservoir sites in the Thompson Creek drainage west of the Crystal River. The West Divide Water Conservancy District will contribute $15,000 toward the total $55,000 cost. The Sewell family owns 1,300 acres and has offered to contribute property for the reservoir sites. The Sewell family hopes to irrigate 30 additional acres with water from the proposed reservoirs. The remaining water would be available for augmentation. The West Divide Water Conservancy District has an annual budget of $80,000 that is funded by a null levy. It manages four regional water augmentation plans in Silt Mesa, Four Mile Canyon, Alsbury Reservoir, and in the Crystal River drainage. The State Engineer determined in 2004 that the Crystal River is over-appropriated and that 20 landowners who have received augmentation water are now without a legal water supply. The Thompson Creek reservoirs would legalize their water supplies. 2. Augmentation plans pernut parties to obtain a water supply without having to go to Water Court. Since 2004, the West Divide Water Conservancy District has been unable to sell any Crystal River augmentation water because the Crystal is over appropriated. According to Sundeen, the only options are to provide additional storage or to purchase senior irrigation rights and dry up agriculture. Rose Aiul Sullivan of Pitlcin County questioned whether the affected landowners could drill deeper wells to obtain a legal water supply. Eric Kuhn replied that such wells are tributary to the Crystal River, and therefore would be junior water rights subject to dry up. He also conunented that it is very expensive to both prove that water is non-tributary, and to drill such deep wells. 4. Louis Meyer suggested that the Crystal Valley landowners that benefit from the proposed project should pay for it. Mark Fuller of the Ruedi Water and Power Authority supported the request, suggesting that the proposed reservoirs could solve problems on the Crystal River and that $40,000 is a small fraction of what it would cost to develop this water. b. US Forest Service: $80,000 for Battlement Reservoir #3 reconstruction. Lori Martin and Mark Glacy with the USFS requested $80,000 toward the projected $400,000 cost to reconstruct Battlement Reservoir #3 to provide a brood stock refiigia for Colorado River Cutthroat Trout. Fishing is Fun has agreed to provide $320,000 if the USFS can raise $80,000. The Battlement Reservoirs are 7 miles south of Parachute in the Rifle Ranger I:AInterbasin Compact Cominittee~Basin Roundtables\Colorado~Minutes~2008~Minutes Mav 2008 CBRT.doc 3 g~2~