BOARD01187

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/2004
• Description: ISF Section - Proposed Case Resolution - Case No. 5-03CW133, Fraser Sanitation District
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

To:

Russell George
Executive Director

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

From: Dan Merriman
Ted Kowalski

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Date: January 20,2004

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Re: ConseDt Agenda Item 1.a, January 27-28, 2003 Board Meeting
Stream and Lake Protection; Proposed Case Resolution
Case No. 5-03CW133; Fraser Sanitation District

BackeroUDd
The Board ratified the statement of opposition filed in this case at its September 2003 board meeting.
This is an application for a plan for augmentation and an appropriative right of exchange on the
Fraser River near Fraser. The Applicant is seeking to augment the depletions associate with two
wells, and to exchange to the two wells. One of the wells has a diversion rate of 15 gallons per
minute and one of the wells has a diversion rate of 50 gallons per minute. The Applicant intends to
use the two wells for commercial, domestic and industrial purposes. The plan seeks to augment the
depletions with releases from the Windy Gap Project or from Wolford Mountain Reservoir.

CWCB APllroDriations
The Board has appropriated instream flow water rights on the Fraser River and the Colorado River.
The rights on the Fraser River are for: 17 cfs (5/15-9/15) and 11 cfs (9/16-5/14), and for 30 cfs'
(5/15-9/15) and 19 cfs (9/16-5/14). There are also rights on the Colorado River for 90 cfs, 135 cfs,
and 150 cfs that could have been injured by this application.

ProDosed Settlement
At the time ofthe filing of the statement of opposition, the Staff relied on the information provided
in the application and determined that the proposed plan for augmentation had the potential to cause
more than 1 % injury to the Board's instream flow water rights on the Fraser River, and potentially
the Colorado River. This was true, in particular, because the Applicant had not indicated where the
Applicant's return flows would accrue to the stream. During settlement discussions, the Applicant
provided the Staff with information documenting that: 1) the use of the wells will result in annual
depletions less than .6 acre feet; 2) because the return flows will accrue to the stream inlmediately
below the point of diversion, the depletions associated with this water rights application would be less
than .0049% of the CWCB's decreed SUlllffier instream flow on the Fraser River. The Applicant has
proposed a settlement of this matter whereby the CWCB would consent to a decree no less restrictive
than a decree that includes these depletion restrictions.

Colorado Water Conservation Board
Flood Protection. Water Supply Plamting and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning