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Newsletter, Colorado Stream Lines <br />develop replacement plans or to join one of the well associations. <br />http://water.state.co.us/Article5.htm <br />Now that was a busy month!!! Suddenly everything became critical - abstract concepts had to <br />be made concrete, interpretations of how the rules were going to be implemented were needed, <br />forecasts had to be made, financial commitments had to be made .... it was wild for everyone. <br />Senate Bill 96 -124 (often referred to as the Arkansas River Basin Protection Act) provided <br />various resources necessary to enforce the rules, including authorization for nine and one -half <br />additional full -time employees. It established significant fines of up to $500 per day for violation <br />of the rules and required power suppliers to provide energy consumption data upon written <br />request -- so it was necessary to recruit, hire and train employees to implement enforcement and <br />data collection procedures as they were being developed. <br />During May, 1996 numerous replacement plans were reviewed resulting in the approval of <br />sixteen plans involving 1,598 wells for which the estimated pumping from June 1, 1996 to March <br />31, 1997 was about 161,000 a.f. Based on these estimates, approximately 17,000 a.f. was to be <br />provided to senior surface water rights in Colorado and about 10,000 a.f. of fully consumable <br />water was to be delivered to the stateline. And all of this had to be done in time, place and <br />amountll <br />Some figures for your consideration: <br />• Total pumping for all wells in plans in the period from June 1, 1996 through October 31, <br />1996 was 86,000 a.f. (8,700 a.f. was downstream form the Buffalo Canal Company's <br />easternmost ditch). <br />• The highest amount pumped in a single month occurred in August, at 23,000 a.f. <br />• Cumulative wellhead depletion incurred by the 77,300 a.f. of pumping during June through <br />October was determined to be 31,000 a.f. <br />• Stream depletions to be replaced to protect senior Colorado surface water rights amounted <br />to approximately 5,600 a.f. for the months of June through October. (Approximately 6,000 <br />a.f. was accounted as offsetting these depletions). <br />• Approximately 8,400 a.f. of consumable water was delivered to Kansas to replace <br />depletions to usable stateline flow. <br />One of the keys has been to physically inventory the wells subject to the rules to verify their <br />existence, ownership, and other various characteristics. This has been completed for wells in the <br />valley fill and surficial aquifers between Pueblo and the stateline and for the Fountain Creek <br />alluvium. It is currently ongoing through the rest of the basin. <br />For the area overlying the valley fill and surficial aquifers between Pueblo and the stateline, as of <br />October 1, 1996: <br />• 2,379 wells were identified as subject to the use and measurement rules. <br />• 2,179 are irrigation wells subject to use and measurement rules. <br />• 2,119 (97 %) appear to be in compliance with the measurement rules. The remaining 60 <br />are in some phase of enforcement. <br />• 1,328 wells are active irrigation wells. <br />• 1,241 (93.5 %) are in a plan as required by the use rules. The remaining 87 are in some <br />phase of enforcement. <br />• 2,632 well site inspections to monitor use rule compliance with 551 wellhead orders issued <br />and numerous orders to report usage. <br />2 of 3 09/11/97 12:33:59 <br />