Water News: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Volume 1 Issue 13

• Description: Water News: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Volume 1 Issue 13
• State: CO
• Date: 3/31/2001
• Title: Water News: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Volume 1 Issue 13
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

THE PREFERRED STORAGE OPTIONS PLAN MOVES
The Board of the Southeastern
legislation will direct the
PSOP. The feasibility studies are
Colorado Water Conservancy
Bureau of Reclamation to
a prerequisite to getting
District took action at their
conduct feasibility studies on
congressional approval for the
March Board meeting to move
the enlargement of Pueblo
actual construction projects.
the implementation of the
Reservoir and Turquoise
Within the next 30 to 60 days
Preferred Storage Options Plan
Reservoir. These studies will
the District will send proposed
(PSOP) a little closer to
memorandum's of
reality. The Board
= agreement (MOA) to
approved the final draft of
water user entities
the Implementation
-
throughout the District.
Committee Report and
These MOAs will ask
directed the District staff
the entities to commit to
to publish the report and
participation in securing
continue to work on the
authority for the re-
introduction of federal
operations contracting
legislation.
and the federal
The proposed federal
feasibility studies for
legislation will provide the
l
those that want to
necessary authority for the
r .,
participate in the
Bureau of Reclamation to Steve Arveschoug discusses the PSOP Implementation enlargement portion of
execute "re- operations" Committee Report at the February 2, 2001 meeting of the PSOP. These
contracts to better utilize
Implementation Committee.
implementation costs
existing capacity in the
are estimated to be as
Fry -Ark Project. In addition to
take two to three years to
much as $2.5 million for re-
establishing authority for re-
complete and will be funded by
operations and $2.0 million for
operations contracts, the
the participants in the
the enlargement studies. Each
enlargement portion of the
See PSOP (Continued on page 3)
BANUNG (Continued from page 1)
can be leased through the
effectiveness of the program
the bill.
water bank for uses within
The proposed water banking
or outside the basin,
HB 1354 has a long way to
pilot project would include the
although in -basin uses
go before it becomes law, but it
following provisions:
would have priority
appears to have support at the
• The State Engineer develops
water banking rules that
apply to storage -water rights
in the Arkansas basin
• The rules would be subject
to review by the Division 2
Water Court
• The pilot program will
operate through 2005 and
can be operated by the State
Engineer or delegated to a
public entity or public/
private partnership
• Water from storage rights
• The water - bank
administrator can charge
fees for deposits into the
bank and for withdrawals
out of the bank; owners of
water rights are
compensated when their
water is leased from the
bank to another user
• The State Engineer will
issue a report to the
Governor and the
Legislature at the
conclusion of the five -year
pilot program detailing the
2 '
state level. The real test will be
when farmers and cities have
the option to use the bank. Will
they? And, will the water bank
meet the objective of helping to
keep water in the basin,
avoiding the permanent dry -up
of agricultural lands? I guess
we'll all find out the answers to
these questions over the next
five years.
For a copy of HB 1354 call
the District at (719) 948 -2400.
Written by: Steve Arveschoug,
General Manager, SECWCD