Tamarack Ranch Recharge Project Water Rights

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1. INTRODUCTION CDOW's Tamarack Ranch Recharge Project (Project) is located on the Tamarack Ranch SWA in Logan County in northeastern Colorado. Project facilities currently include 10 pumping wells located along the South Platte River and three recharge ponds located within the Sand Hills several thousand feet south of the river. At build out, this project is proposed to be expanded to 17 wells and 11 recharge pond areas. Figure 1 provides a location map showing all existing and proposed structures. The Project is designed to pump wells whenever the water rights are in priority on the South Platte River, and then to discharge this water to recharge ponds providing water for fish rearing and maintenance of fish and their habitat, waterfowl resting habitat, and wildlife habitat protection and preservation. Upon delivery to the recharge pond, the majority of the recharge water percolates into the ground. This water becomes part of the alluvial groundwater system, and travels back to the South Platte River providing "recharge" water to the South Platte River. This recharge water produces augmentation credit for wildlife operations at the SWA, the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, and other local water users. CDOW will use these augmentation credits generated by the recharge plan for augmentation purposes to replace depletions from wells operated pursuant to this decree, for downstream in- channel fish rearing and maintenance of fish and their habitat (including species of special concern), and for wildlife recovery through the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program. In addition, these augmentation credits resulting from recharge under the plan for augmentation . will be used to provide water to the warm water slough adjacent to the South Platte River on the Tamarack Ranch SWA. The warm water slough provides habitat for warm water fishes including but not limited to the brassy minnow, sucker mouth minnow, northern red belly dace, common shiner and plains minnow, some of which are species of special concern due to their diminished populations. The warm water slough is capable of direct release to the South Platte River, but CDOW will not use the slough to deliver surface water to the South Platte River for recharge or augmentation credit. Each year, CDOW will place water into recharge facilities in anticipation of wildlife needs that may occur later in the year. In some years CDOW may generate more augmentation credits than are eventually needed to meet wildlife and augmentation needs. CDOW may lease any such excess credits to the water users described in this decree, or to other water users, for use as an augmentation source in other substitute water supply plans or decreed plans for augmentation, in accordance with the law and subject to the approval of the State Engineer and /or the Water Court for Water Division No. 1. Before any excess credits may be leased and /or used by any other water user, CDOW will replace all out -of- priority depletions that result from pumping the wells now included in, or later added to, this decree. From 1999 -2002 recharge accretions created by this plan were leased to the Groundwater Appropriators of the South Platte River Basin Inc. and the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District for augmentation use in their substitute water supply plans. For years 2003 -2005, recharge accretions were leased to other approved substitute water supply plans. • 1 'Page