10/6/A-005 Supplemental Data

• Case Number: 10/6/A-005
• Stream Name: Morrison Creek
• Water Division: 6
• Instream Flow App - Doc Type: Supplemental Data

i 6
Morrison Creek Appropriation
Recommendation Letter
Page 4 of 5
In addition, the District's other decreed water rights could affect the Recommended Reach.
For example, the Division 6 Water court recently entered a finding of reasonable diligence and
decree continuing the District's conditional water rights for diversion of 50 c.f.s. from Morrison
Creek in Case No. 04CW10. Under that decree, water would be diverted from Morrison Creek and
released into Little Morrison Creek for storage in Stagecoach Reservoir.
To continue those conditional water rights, the District must file an application for finding of
reasonable diligence by the end of February, 2015. However, the District may choose not to
develop those conditional water rights in favor of another project, or file an application for a change
of water rights to divert them at a different location on Morrison Creek. According to the recent
testimony of Thomas Sharp, a member of the District's board of directors, the District is
considering at least six different alternatives to divert water from Morrison Creek to increase the
yield of Stagecoach Reservoir. A copy of a memorandum summarizing those alternatives is
attached as Appendix D. By appropriating an instream flow water right for the Recommended
Reach now, the CWCB could preserve and protect the existing natural environment against
degradation from new appropriations for those alternatives or changes in points of diversion for
decreed water rights.
A new appropriation could also protect the Recommended Reach against depletions from
future exchanges of water rights on Morrison Creek or changes in points of diversion and /or places
of storage for other existing water rights. For example, the district holds several decrees for
conditional water rights for the Four Counties Ditch Nos. 1 and 3 and the Four Counties Ditch No. 3
First Enlargement. The District changed those water rights to allow them to be stored in Stagecoach
Reservoir. The District may, in the future, seek to change those rights to allow them to be diverted
by exchange on Morrison Creek, or stored in the Morrison Creek Reservoir. A new appropriation
by the CWCB would be senior to a later appropriative right of exchange on Morrison Creek, and
would protect against diminished stream flows resulting from future changes of existing water
rights.
In summary, there are numerous threats to the natural environment within the
Recommended Reach. Although some of those projects have decreed water rights or pending
applications for water rights that would senior to a new appropriation by the CWCB, the District
may not build those projects or obtain those decrees. In addition, by appropriating an instream flow
right in the near future, the CWCB could protect the Recommended Reach from degradation that
would result from future changes of the District's existing water rights and new appropriations.
D. RECOMMENDATION
Based upon the information provided above, and the preliminary conclusions of Habitech,
Inc., the Parties recommend the CWCB appropriate instream -flow water rights on Morrison Creek,
from its confluence with Silver Creek to its confluence with the Yampa River, in at least the
following amounts: 18 c.£s. during the summer months and 4 c.fs. during the winter months. The
Parties further recommend that the CWCB file an application for such water rights in the near future
to obtain a senior priority against fixture appropriations and preserve the stream conditions existing
at the time of the instream -flow appropriation against future changes in water rights.