Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District 2003 Annual Report

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Jim Broderick was hired January 2003 to serve as General Manager of the District. Mr. Broderick got off to a great start, thanks to the great skills and experience he possesses, plus the fact that he is a quick learner. He has brought to the District some new ideas and a lot of energy. Under his very capable leadership, our staff partnered with him, forming an excellent team to face the many challenges of 2003. One of his first and most important assignments was assisting the District with the Aurora Intergovernmental Agreement Negotiating Team. After four years of court actions, much discussion, extensive and intense negotiations, on September 18, 2003 the District board approved an intergovernmental agreement with Aurora. This monumental settlement agreement put in place the framework for resolution of various court cases and disputes, and in particular, the transfer of the majority of the remaining portion of the Rocky Ford Ditch. Along with settling important water rights cases, the agreement also brought major benefits to the District and the Arkansas Valley in the form of Aurora agreeing to no new future permanent water diversions from the Arkansas Valley over the next forty years (limiting in all forms the water they remove from the Valley at Otero Pump Station to 54,000 acre feet), and bringing to the District and our constituents more than $50 million of direct financial benefit. The historic agreements between Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District (SECWCD), the City of Aurora and the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District ( UAWCD) negotiated terms and conditions based on the concept of preserving and improving the water resources of the Arkansas Basin. The impacts of the change and transfer of these water rights were defined and agreed to by negotiation. The combined water rights were reduced by 1,650 acre -feet. SECWCD and UAWCD negotiated with the City of Aurora that although Aurora would agree to leave some water (1,650) in the basin, this did not address the potential damages from the transfer of the remaining water. Compensatory measures needed to be instituted to deal with that potential damage. The final agreements changed the timing and methods of transfer. Aurora agreed to contributions of water and storage to eliminate the impacts of water transfers in dry years. Part of this contribution included two "pools," which would develop water for storage for use in dry years to remove the 1874 call of the Rocky Ford Ditch. These two storage pools, a total of 4,500 acre -feet, will also be available for use by the water districts. This allows the districts to enhance the size of the "pools" in wet years and enlarge the amount of saved water during dry years. The restrictions on future water use in the Arkansas Valley were written into the agreements: 1. Aurora may not purchase a water right from the Arkansas Valley for 40 years. 2. The total amount that may be removed in any year is 54,000 acre -feet. a. Fifty percent of this water originates outside the Arkansas Basin. b. Presently, the remainder comes from present and past water purchases in the Arkansas Basin. c. To meet this pipeline capacity the balance must come from temporary leases — approximately 8,300 acre -feet. .8.