21 ‎(6)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 7/22/2008
• Description: Attorney General's Report, Legal Briefing and Executive Session
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Engineer's new Advisory Committee for Compact rules on this issue will convene on July 9.
Jennifer Gimbel is a member of the Committee, and Steve Miller. are also on our in-state team.
4. Application for Water Rights for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Division
3, 2004CW35.
Settlement talks brake down and the matter is now set for a three week trial beginning July 28 in
Alamosa.
WATER RIGHTS MATTER
5. Application for Water Rights of Basalt water conservancy district, Division 5:
O1CW305 and 02CW77.
The Basalt Water Conservancy District filed an application seeking approval of a change of
water rights and a plan for augmentation. The Board has ISFs in the Roaring Fork River,
above the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Fryingpan, in the amounts of 55/30 cfs. It
also has ISFs below the confluence in the amounts of 145/75cfs. In order to assure protection
of these ISFs the Board entered a statement of opposition to the application.
Following its administrative procedures, the Board, in July 2006, accepted an Injury with
Mitigation proposal from the applicant, subject to review and comments from the State and
Division Engineers' office. That discussion is continuing.
In addition, the Court has recently bifurcated the cases to separate the reach involved in the •
Injury with Mitigation proposal from the reach that is not involved in the proposal.
6. Application of Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, 06CW43, Division 6. The
CWCB filed an opposition in this case. A number of other water users also filed oppositions,
including the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the State and Division Engineers, United States,
Catamount Development and Catamount Metropolitan District, Tri-State, City of Craig, City of
Steamboat Springs, and Steamboat Alpine Development. The case is set fora 5-day trial
beginning October 27, 2008. The CWCB will file Rule 26(a)(2) disclosures of expert testimony
and exhibits on July 21, 2008. The CWCB staff has been working with staff from Division of
Wildlife and the Engineers to develop opinions and cooperative litigation strategies. The CWCB
is also in the preliminary, information-gathering stage of settlement discussions, which should
take place in the next month or so; these are occurring closer to trial than usual because the case
was set for trial quite soon after the application was filed. After the filing of rebuttal disclosures
by applicant, it is expected that a deposition schedule will be adopted. This case involves an
"umbrella augmentation plan," i.e., an augmentation plan that water users--such as those building
new homes--throughout designated areas of the district could join as a way of providing
replacement water for the out-of-priority diversions. Under the plan, a water user would apply to
the district, and the district would then determine the amount of the water user's depletions
(using assumptions and parameters set by the decree) and provide the replacement water from its
sources, including Stagecoach Reservoir and Yamcolo Reservoir. The plan would eliminate the
need for participating water users to obtain a separate decree for water use. The expert report
from the CWCB identifies several issues, including a lack of sufficient detail in the engineering •
and application to evaluate the potential injury to CWCB's instream flow rights, flaws in the
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