Decree Case No. 98CW448 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5. Intent to Appropriate. The court finds that Golden possessed the requisite intent to appropriate water for the amounts and time periods shown in Tables I and 2, below. 6. Absolute and Conditional Amounts. Golden is entitled to an absolute decree for those flow rates that have been put to beneficial use, i.e., actually used to date by boaters running the Course. The absolute water rights claimed by Golden in the application were based, inter alia, upon measured flows at the Clear Creek Gage when the course was in use by boaters. In many months, there was insufficient evidence of gage flows during use. The court finds that in such instances, average monthly flows for the 26 -year period 1974 -1999 provide a reasonable estimate of the stream stages anticipated and actually used by boaters. Where the evidence has tied a given use to a contemporaneous flow rate, the court concludes that the maximum such coincidence of use and flow rate, in a given month, establishes flow rate for that month for which Golden is entitled to an absolute decree. The court also distinguishes between day and night use, inasmuch as there is a substantial difference in density of use before and after dark. In addition, Golden's plan to encourage night use by installing lights to illuminate the stream is still in the planning stage. The court has chosen 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. as a year -round average demarcation between light and dark, recognizing that seasonal differences are substantial. Golden may yet, during the diligence period, establish actual use -flow rate data to justify a decree for recreational rights throughout all or part of a twenty -four hour period. However, perfection of nighttime rights must be established from uses that occur between one -hour after sundown and one hour before sunrise. Tying decreed flow rates to actual diurnal and monthly use will limit Golden's appropriation to that amount of water actually put to beneficial use at given points in time. Tables 1 and 2 show the respective decreed rates for day and night use. The first row of each table lists the total monthly flow rates, in cubic feet per second (cfs), that Golden seeks. The second row lists the flow rates that were appropriated and applied to beneficial use by Golden, for the months given, and which the court is now decreeing to be absolute. The third row lists the difference in flow rates between row 1 and row 2, and which the court now decrees to be conditional. As . is apparent from Table 2, the court has insufficient data to decree night uses to be absolute. 2 Flow rates decreed absolute for the months of April, June, July and August are from State's Exhibit S-4.1 The court includes users of any flotation device in the term `boaters ". •` Calculated by the court from Exhibit G -3. • Page 4 of 11