Meeting Set to Hear Aurora Water Request: Pueblo Chieftain

• Description: Meeting Set to Hear Aurora Water Request: Pueblo Chieftain
• State: CO
• Date: 1/17/2003
• Author: Wood, Margie
• Title: Meeting Set to Hear Aurora Water Request: Pueblo Chieftain
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

Miller, Steve
From: Miller, Steve
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 3:13 PM
To: Kuharich, Rod; McAuliffe, Dan; 'Miskel, Harold (E- mail)'
Cc: Seaholm, Randy; Witte, Steve; Simpson, Hal; Weiss, Wendy
Subject: USBR punts to Gov. on Aurora Sub. Plan
The article pasted below is from today's Pueblo Chieftain [I've merged and numbered
paragraphs to reduce space]. Note in the 4th paragraph that USBR is looking to Gov. Owens
for direction on using Pueblo Res. to facilitate Aurora's temporary, emergency use of its
Rocky Ford water during the drought. To my knowledge USBR never before sought state
guidance before contracting with Aurora for use of Pueblo Res. I'm not sure if the Gov.
will seek CWCB input before responding, but thought you might want to discuss this at
Board meeting next week. I assume Harold was at the SECWCD meeting when this came up
yesterday and can provide more info to Board, if he thinks it is appropriate - and if the
article accurately reflects USBR's position. If you like I can followup, verify, and get
more detail from Alice Johns and Brian Person at USBR Loveland on Tuesday.
The Pueblo Chieftain Online
Select file then print to print this article.
Publish Date Friday January 17th, 2003
Meetina set to hear Aurora water request
By MARGIE WOOD ..�...
The Pueblo Chieftain
1. The state Water Resources engineer has scheduled a meeting of parties in the Rocky
Ford Ditch case Jan. 27, giving notice that Aurora is likely to win approval of its 90 -day
"substitute water supply plan" to use the water from a pending purchase of ditch shares.
Directors of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District discussed the situation
at their meeting on Thursday, but their lawyers said they don't have much information
about how the process will work. Aurora contracted three years ago to buy most of the
remaining shares in the Rocky Ford Ditch, and the transfer case was set for trial in water
court last November. But it now has been postponed until December.
2. Shortly after the original trial date was postponed, Aurora applied for the emergency
supply under provisions of a state law passed only last year. That law doesn't require
notice to other parties in the pending water court case, but the state engineer did notify
them and scheduled the meeting "in order to maintain open communication and allow for
comment." The meeting notice said, "Based on information Aurora has presented, the state
engineer is inclined to view Aurora's condition as an emergency situation that qualifies
for a 90 -day plan." Aurora has said it hopes to take the water during May, June and July.
3. Although objectors in the case, including the Southeastern district, are expected to
receive a copy of Aurora's plan before the meeting, they didn't have it on Thursday,
attorney Lee Miller said. This is the first application for emergency supply under the new
statute, and Miller said, "We don't really have enough information to know what's going to
happen at the meeting. We hope soon to get their substitute supply plan, and then we'll
have a better idea."
4. Meanwhile, Brian Person, regional Bureau of Reclamation director, told the board that
the bureau is prepared to issue a temporary storage contract to Aurora to allow the city
to store the emergency supply in Lake Pueblo, if Gov. Bill Owens should request that
action under the federal drought assistance act of 1991. (Owens' office said Thursday
afternoon that no such request is in the works yet.) Aurora bought about 60 percent of
the Rocky Ford Ditch in 1986, and has been receiving storage contracts from the Bureau of
Reclamation year by year - always over the objection of the Southeastern district.
5. In late 2001, the district and Aurora made an agreement that the district would drop
its objection to storage of that portion of the ditch water and to the transfer of the
second purchase. In fact, the district agreed to put permission for long -term storage
contracts in its legislation reauthorizing the Fryingpan- Arkansas Project, in exchange for
Aurora's support of the bill in Congress. But when the bill failed to move through
Congress last year, the agreements collapsed and the trial was postponed. Now the
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