Arkansas - Upper Ark WCD Hydrologic Water Balance Study_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account- Grant Application Form P'orm Revised May 2007 Augmentation is currently 18% of water use and growing. Augmentation represents conjunctive groundwater and surface water management. It utilizes fully consumable surface water to replace surface water depletions related primarily to ground water use; ground water is considered tributary to the Arkansas River. Augmentation water also replaces water from springs, ponds, and diversion structures related to surface water rights. Augmentation serves approximately 1,700 participants, including residents in unincorporated subdivisions of new housing developments. A blanket augmentation plan covers two-thirds of the District's service area. Augmentation water is provided at a cost of $3,500 per each 1/10th of an acre foot, plus an annual fee for maintenance and storage of $150 per 1/10th of an acre foot. Each 1/10th of an acre foot is equal to one unit of augmentation. To date, the District has allocated 2,345 units of augmentation. Table 4 summarizes District water augmentation plans as of March 2008 and also reflects the role of the Colorado State Engineer in water augmentation. The District projects that by 2035, it will serve 5,100 augmentation users who will demand approximately 806 acre feet. That represents an increase of about 25% in water demand and about 20% more users. TABLE 4: WATER AUGMENTATION BY PLAN Plan T e A lications* Acre Feet Re uested Units Applications Approved b State Acre Feet Approved b State Standard 1,667 234.46 233.59 989 137.30 Rule-14 21 146.90 0 21 146.90 Annual 5 25 250.02 4 24.94 Leases 6 42.48 0 6 42.48 TOTALS 1,699 448.84 2,594.61 1,020 351.61 *Each application represents a water structure such as a grountl water well. While the District has water augmentation available for irrigation and municipal use, the majority of users are domestic households (represented by 989 approvetl applications). Each application is generally a household that can be considered to average 2.5 persons each. A brief historv of the applicant. In 1979, the UAWCD was created. It assumed control of three high mountain reservoirs in Chaffee County in 1982. North Fork Reservoir (elevation 11,400 feet) and Boss Lake (elevation 11,870 feet) are each located about two miles from the Continental Divide at the western border of Chaffee County, on the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the South Arkansas River, respectively. The third reservoir is Lake 0'Haver (9,200 feet) on Poncha Creek, located about one mile from the southern border of Chaffee County. Since assuming control of the three reservoirs in 1982, UAWCD has provided storage for the City of Salida and the Town of 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 out-of-priority pumping of ground water wells. Groundwater, an important source of water in the District's semi-arid mountain region, is considered tributary to the Arkansas River. UAWCD pioneered conjunctive ground water and surface water management strategies, filing for the first-ever blanket water augmentation plan 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 Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District (UAWCD) Page 6 of 42