Water News: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Volume 1 Issue 12

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0 WATER NEWS News and Notes from the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12 DECEMBER 31, 2000 "THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS" WORK CONTINUES ON THE DETAILS OF THE PREFERRED STORAGE OPTIONS PLAN District staff and water users on the Preferred Storage Option Plan (PSOP) Implementation Committee continue to work through the details of how the PSOP will provide storage for individual needs as well as District -wide needs. The basic plan is still the same: 1) establish authority for long- term, Non - Project Water storage contracts in existing Project space (subordinate to the Project uses); and 2) enlarge Pueblo Reservoir by at least 54,000 acre -feet by the year 2013 and enlarge Turquoise Reservoir by as much as 19,000 acre -feet by the year 2025. The Implementation Committee's ongoing discussions center on how best to develop District Water Management Storage. The PSOP proposes that District Water Management Storage (DWMS) is needed to provide storage to better manage Winter Water Storage Program supplies that are subject to spill, provide for storage of other supplemental agricultural water, give small towns in the District future opportunities to contract for firm storage space, and provide storage space for a future water bank. The size of the DWMS is estimated to be as much as 25,000 acre -feet to meet these needs. There is general agreement on the need for DWMS. The real question is how to pay for its development. At the present time Implementation Committee members are considering a proposal to require participants in the enlargement project to provide fifteen percent more storage space than they collectively need for their own uses. This "15% mitigation charge" would provide a measure of District Water Management Storage to be used by the District to help meet District - wide needs. Current estimates suggest that this approach could provide as much as 7,500 acre -feet for DWMS, and the first portion would be used for the management of agricultural supplies. The debate continues on how to develop the additional space needed for DWMS. The Implementation Committee will continue to meet on a regular basis to resolve the outstanding issues from the Preferred Storage Options Plan, working against a deadline of January 18 to present a draft report to the District's Water Activity Enterprise Board of Directors. The next step in the process would be to ask Congress to authorize a federal -level feasibility study of the proposed enlargement projects and grant Reclamation authority to execute long -term storage contracts for non - Project Water. Yes, it will take an act of See DETAILS — Continued on page 3z--1 C