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• Board Meeting Date: 7/21/2010
• Description: Stream & Lake Protection Section - Case Nos. 6-07CW061 and 6-07CW072: Applications of Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

BEFORE THE COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
IN THE MATTER OF PROPOSED INSTREAM FLOW APPROPRIATIONS DIVISION
6: MORRISON CREEK (confluence Muddy Creek to confluence Silver Creek) AND
MORRISON CREEK (confluence Silver Creek to confluence Yampa River)
PREHEARING BRIEF ON INUNDATION REQUEST OF THE STAFF OF THE
COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
After the Prehearing Conference in this matter, held on July 16, 2010, the Prehearing
Officer ordered all the Participants in the Prehearing Conference to brief the issues surrounding
the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District's ( "District ") request that the CWCB consider its
Request to Inundate a Portion of Silver Creek (attached hereto) in conjunction with the Morrison
Creek Instream Flow ( "ISF ") appropriation hearing scheduled for September 2010. The CWCB
Staff, represented by the Attorney General's Office, submits the following for consideration of
those issues:
Background
The Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District ( "District ") filed two applications for
water storage rights on Morrison Creek in 07CW61 and 07CW72, which cases were
subsequently consolidated. In Case No. 07CW61, the District sought to change a portion of its
conditional storage right associated with the Pleasant Valley Reservoir and Feeder Canal to an
upstream location on Morrison Creek for beneficial uses within its service area or delivery to
nearby Stagecoach Reservoir. In Case No. 07CW72, the District requested a new storage right
for the Morrison Creek Reservoir in the same location on Morrison Creek and for the same
purposes as described in 07CW61.
The CWCB, among others, filed Statements of Opposition to the two applications and
subsequently entered into stipulations with the District. The District obtained a final decree from
the court awarding storage rights on Morrison Creek of up to 10,620 acre feet (AF) associated
with its Pleasant Valley Reservoir and Feeder Canal water rights, and the application in Case No.
07CW72 was eventually dismissed. The District and the CWCB entered into a stipulation to
resolve the cases that allows the District to obtain its change of water rights even though it would
result in inundation of the CWCB's instream flow on Silver Creek decreed in Case No.
77CW1328. As a condition of settlement the District and the CWCB agreed that "[t]he extent of
this possible inundation of the CWCB's instream flow right as it relates to the proposed
Morrison Creek Reservoir is not known with precision at this time," and that "[d]uring the
permitting process and prior to commencing construction of the Morrison Creek Reservoir that
would inundate any existing CWCB instream flow right on Silver Creek decreed in Case No.