BOARD00288

• Board Meeting Date: 7/28/2003
• Description: ISF Section - Proposal to CWCB to Facilitate the Retirment of Certain Hermosa Creek Water Rights Senior to the Board's Instream Flows by Durango Mountian Resorts
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Dan Merriman and Edward Kowalski
June 12,2003
Page 3

II. Proposals to Facilitate Retirement of Water Ril!hts.

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1. Assienment of Limited Rii:hts. We are aware 0 ,the limitations on the Boa d's
ability to accept donated conditional water rights. That limitatio i is stated in the context of ater
court applications for the Board's in-stream flow program. C.R !. 9 37-92-102(3)(c.5).
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Accordingly, we propose assigning or donating to the Board a ve: limited interest in the st rage
rights for the sole purpose of facilitating the retirement of these jshts. Specifically, we pro ose
donating the right of abandonment for these water rights, or don :'ng the water rights subje to
abandonment. In either instance, the CWCB would be accepting the donation of a very limi ed
interest in the water rights that, on its face, would not allow the oard to use any part Ofth~
rights in a water court application. Instead, the Board would onl be assisting DMR in reti'ng
the rights and that, in turn, would essentially move the Board's i ,stream flow rights up the
priority ranking in the basin. i
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2. Cooperative Abandonment. Alternatively, ifth 'Board does not accept D 's
preferred choice of a limited donation, DMR proposes a coopera 'ive abandomnent. By this
procedure, DMR would submit an abandonment ofthe storage ri hts to the Division Engine r
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and Water Court with a provision stating that the abandonment *s coordinated through the
CWCB and that the CWCB encourages acceptance of the aband ! ent. We would request hat
if this approach is accepted, that staffbe given authority to sign s Ich a provision. This appr ach
would not entail any donation, but would make the CWCB' s faci itation of the abandonmen
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express. i

Finally, we appreyiate your consideration of these somew ,at unique proposals.
Hopefully, these proposals will provide another way for the CW ~ to enhance its in-stream flow
program. I will prepare proposed donations and a proposed coop 'rative abandonment in the near
future for consideration by the Board. Also, if the CWCB accept' either proposal, we woul
propose that a mutually acceptable press release be issued. Such : press release is importan in
that it would credit the CWCB's and DMR's cooperative efforts n retiring water rights tha~t
would otherwise be senior to the in-stream flow rights held by the CWCB, thus protecting e
Hermosa Creek environment and its cutthroat trout.' ,
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Thank you again for your cooperation in this matter. If w ! can answer any questionsl or
provide additional information, please do not hesitate to contact .' e. I
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