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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

B. Delivery from Morrison Creek Reservoir to Stagecoach Reservoir may be made
by pipeline and/or ditch across the Morrison Divide and further pipeline, ditch and/or use
of the stream channel of Little Morrison Creek and/or any tributary of Little Morrison
Creek.
11. Contemplated Draft of Rights to be Changed.
A. The Court received evidence concerning the contemplated draft of the water
rights to be changed, specifically the amount that would be available for diversion and
storage at the original dam site of the Pleasant Valley Reservoir and the headgate of the
Pleasant Valley Feeder Canal. The District's experts utilized available and reliable
stream flow records regarding the Yampa River and its tributaries and a study period of
1985 through the 2007 water year in order to simulate the available diversions for the
Pleasant Valley Reservoir and its Feeder Canal as if they were constructed at their
original points of diversion and storage. Appropriate adjustments were made in the data
to reflect the development of major diversion facilities, specifically including the
District's Stagecoach Reservoir.
B. The analysis revealed that, if operated pursuant to their originally decreed
priorities, the Pleasant Valley Project Rights could have diverted on average 42,607 acre-
feet per year of storage, assuming that all of the water stored in Pleasant Valley Reservoir
had been released prior to the end of each modeled storage year (March through
February). The analysis considered a demand of existing water rights on Walton Creek
totalling 289 cfs. During the most extreme dry periods, at least 34,200 acre feet of water
was available for storage. This amount of water is sufficient to account for the 23,354
acre feet already made absolute in Yamcolo and Stagecoach Reservoirs and the additional
10,620 acre feet proposed for the Morrison Creek Reservoir. Accordingly, junior rights
located downstream from the original points of diversion and storage shall not be
required to by-pass any of the amount determined to be legally and physically available.
In addition, terms and conditions have been included at paragraph 12, below, to prevent
an enlargement of the draft on Morrison Creek or Walton Creek.
C. The Court has recognized in Case No. 0 1 CW4 1, District Court, Water Division 6,
that the Pleasant Valley Project Rights may be stored under the 2001 priority and used for
augmentation and exchange for replacement purposes and all other augmentation uses.
Consequently, the water stored under the Pleasant Valley Project Water Rights at the
Morrison Creek Reservoir under the 2001 priority may be fully consumed and issues of
contemplated diversion and return flows are not relevant in the Court's analysis of the
contemplated draft.
D. The evidence establishes that water was available in the amounts claimed at the
original points of diversion and place of storage, which points of diversion and places of
storage are moved upstream as decreed herein.
CASE NO. 07CW61
FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW,
AND JUDGMENT AND DECREE
PAGE 7