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The Well Augmentation Subdistrict has operated an augmentation plan since 2004, and currently <br />has 440 member welis and an annual total depletion of approximately 12,300 acre-feet. The <br />Subdistrict budget is used to purchase, lease, and develop water rights, as well as to operate the <br />annual augmentation plan. <br />The charge to members per acre-foot of augmentation water is now $35 per acre-foot of <br />consumptive use water for irrigated land with no surface water rights. Increases in annual <br />assessments will raise that figure to the $40 per acre-foot in 2005. <br />The Well Augmentation Subdistrict has been very active in acquiring water rights for use in the <br />plan for augmentation. Several groundwater recharge projects are being developed, and <br />substantial ditch and reservoir stock has been purchased. To-date, Subdistrict water rights are <br />valued at approximately $1 million. <br />Table 3 <br />Water Rights Owned <br />Well Augmentation Subdistrict of the <br />Central Colorado Water Conservancy District <br />2004 <br />Companv Location Amount <br />(acre-feet) <br />Farmer's Independent Ditch Gilcrest 53.14 <br />Goffrey Bottom Ditch LaSalle 99.44 <br />TOTAL <br />152.58 acre-feet <br />The Subdistrict also leases approximately 10,000 acre-feet of augmentation water annually from <br />the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District. The District has an automatically renewing <br />lease with the Well Augmentation Subdistrict for these water supplies. <br />Project Description and Alternatives <br />On December 17, 2001, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a judgement in Case 00-SA-211 that <br />changed the manner of operation of substitute supply plans in Colorado. The case centered on a <br />dispute in the Arkansas Valley between an irrigator and an upstream homeowners association, <br />called "Empire Lodge". In 1996 Empire Lodge filed suit in Water Court claiming that the <br />downstream irrigators (the "Moyers"), had illegally expanded the use of their water right. The <br />Moyers filed a counter-suit arguing that the Colorado State Engineer had allowed Empire Lodge <br />to fill its upstream lake illegally under a substitute supply plan approved by the State Engineer. <br />The case was ultimately heard by the Colorado Supreme Court, and at the end of last year, it <br />ruled the State Engineer did not have the legal authority to approve substitute supply plans. The <br />4 <br />