Arkansas - UAWCD Telemetry Data Collection_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Foim Revised AIai• 2007 A brief history of the applicant. The UAWCD was created in 1979 and assumed control of three reservoirs in Chaffee County on the South Arkansas in 1982. The three reservoirs include North Fork and Boss Lake at the headwaters of the North Fork of the South Arkansas and the South Arkansas, respectively. The third reservoir is O'Haver at the headwaters of Poncha Creek above the South Arkansas. Since assuming control of the three reservoirs in 1982, UAWCD has provided storage for Salida and Poncha Springs, two municipalities on the South Arkansas. By the mid-1980s, Kansas sued Colorado over a violation of the Arkansas Compact citing depletion of state line flows caused by the out of priority pumping of wells in the Arkansas Basin. Groundwater is an important source of water in the District's semi-arid mountain region. UAWCD was a pioneer in implementing conjunctive groundwater and surface water management strategies. UAWCD filed for a first- ever blanket water augmentation plan designed to replace out of priority depletions from diversion structures in a large geographic area in the Upper Arkansas region - all of Chaffee County and Western Fremont County. In 1994, the same year the UAWCD blanket water augmentation plan was decreed, the State of Colorado adopted the "Amended Rules and Regulations Governing Well Use in the Arkansas Basin," in response to the Kansas vs. Colorado suit. The District also acquired storage rights at Rainbow Lake and Cottonwood Lake in Chaffee County within the Cottonwood Creek drainage. It then began acquisition of water rights to meet the depletions from diversion structures in the Upper Arkansas. Population growth of the Upper Arkansas region began in earnest by 1994. For example, the population of Chaffee County grew 23% between 1980 and 2000. Historically, municipal water users planned independently of one another. With double-digit population growth came increased municipal demands and this intensified the need for storage. UAWCD began planning for an integrated management approach with municipalities and other water providers in the Upper Arkansas. Realizing that most municipal supply sources were from Arkansas River minor tributaries like Cottonwood Creek and from Arkansas River major tributaries like the South Arkansas River, reservoir storage at the headwaters of these tributaries became of vital importance to water planners. Large population growth impacts were and continue to be in Chaffee County on the Cottonwood Creek drainage and the South Arkansas River. UAWCD recognized that supplies must be made available on these tributaries via timely exchanges to headwater reservoirs from main stem sources such as Pueblo Reservoir and Twin Lakes - where most trans-mountain water exists and where the largest storage exists in the basin. By utilizing the water stored in Pueblo and Twin Lakes in conjunction with off-mainstem tributary storage, the District increased water use efficiency and met demands related to population growth. To continue to meet growing water needs, UAWCD filed an application in Water Court to integrate its supplies with its storage vessels and its existing blanket augmentation plans. This includes using its available water supply in an expanded area of unincorporated Custer County to meet growing market water needs. Augmentation water is currently 18% of District water use and growing. As part of the approval to integrate the supply plan, the Colorado State Engineer mandated that UAWCD install remote continuous recording instrumentation at reservoirs to improve measurement of outflows and inflows at its high mountain reservoirs, and also install remote continuous recording instrumentation at certain stream Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District (UAWCD) Page 7 of 52