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• Board Meeting Date: 7/22/2008
• Description: ISF Section - Lower San Miguel Water Resources Planning Study
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Lower San Miguel yVa~er Resource Planning Study
Page 4
dispose of any of the Uravan Water Rights for use outside of the San Miguel River Basin, and 5)
CWCB notify the local governments of any serious consideration of a third party's offer to
purchase the Uravan Water Rights and the local governments shall have a right of first refusal
regarding any of the Uravan Water Rights.
As Umetco moved forward with its remediation activities at the Uravan site, there was little
activity by the Trust. No water users came forward claiming impairment of their water rights,
and none have to date. In 2003, after an article appeared in a local paper regarding potential uses
of the Uravan Water Rights, a meeting was called of the signatories to the MOU and various
state officials. This meeting was to clarify the disposition of the Uravan Water Rights once the
remediation was complete, to get an estimate on the time schedule for completion of
remediation, and to evaluate the status of the Uravan Water Rights.
III.D Water Rights Historical Use vs. Abandonment
In July of 2000, the Uravan Water Rights were placed on the Division Engineer's
Abandonment List due to a lack of use and the attorney for the Trust filed a protest to the listing.
The CWCB staff, Division 4 Engineer, State Engineer, Assistant Attorney General and the
counsel for the Trust met by phone and it was determined that the unique circumstances
surrounding the Trust and the San Miguel Power Canal water rights, owned by the CWCB,
would address the immediate concerns of abandonment and the Uravan Water Rights were
removed from the list.
The Division Engineer expressed his concern that the formal record of use of the Uravan Water
Rights was lacking at best. There was limited record in his office and many of the people
associated with the use of the water rights had either left the area or had passed away, as the use
of the water rights dated back to the turn of the century. The CWCB staff said it would request
Severance Tax monies to fund a study to look at the historical use of the Uravan Water Rights.
There was also a discussion regarding the possible temporary use, while remediation was
continuing, of some of the "Johnson Ditch" water rights to meet a need for irrigation of a
planned Ball Field and Interpretive Center at the site of the original Uravan Ball Fields. The
trustee for Umetco felt this was doable as well as the Division Engineer since some of the water
rights had been used for that purpose originally. This temporary use would provide some record
of use as the remediation efforts came to a close.
III.E Armbruster Report -Uravan Water Rights, Historical Use Analysis
The CWCB commissioned a study of the Uravan Water Rights. The study "Uravan
Water Rights, Historical Use Analysis" a.k.a. "Armbruster Report" was completed in June of
2005. This report gave an account of the history of the area, the history of the water rights, their
development, use, change, and historical consumptive use. The study also addressed future uses
in the post-remediation period. It identified some possible options for future use and identified
potential issues with those uses. This report was released as a draft at a community meeting in
Nucla in June of 2005 and finalized shortly thereafter.
~Iuly 2008