BOARD01483

• Board Meeting Date: 7/24/2000
• Description: ISF Section - Recreational Instream Flows - Policy Discussion
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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830 P.2d 915, City of Thornton By and Through Utililies Bd. v. City of Fort Collins, (Colo. 1992)

Page 7

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substituting therefor two specific diversionary
strucmres within the Corridor, namely. the Fort
Collins Nature Center Diversion Dam (Nature Dam)
and the Fort Collins Power Plant Diversion Dam
(Power Dam), The Nature Dam is a rdatively new
strucmre designed and built to divert the Poudre
River back imo its "historic" channel and away from
a channel cut after heavy rains and flooding in
1983-84. Along the historic channel. Colorado State
University (CSU) owns and maintains property
slated for development as the Northern Colorado
Nature Center. The Nature Center offers an
interpretive trail system and picnic grounds for day
use. Future plans include an arboretum and the
relocation of the CSU raptor rehabilitation program
to the Nature Cemer. Fort Collins and CSU
cooperate with regard to the Nature Center and the
continued development of the historic channel.
Construction of the Nature Dam began after 1986
but was completed before trial to the water court.
The Power Dam is an older strucmre on the Poudre
River owned and maintained by Fort Collins. The
Power Dam is so named because of its proximity to
a retired municipal power plant which has received
local historical designation, The old plant and the
Power Dam are in the midst of numerous parks, a
visual arts center and a community center, all
integral to the Corricor. Other, valid appropriations
of Poudre River water not at issue in this case are
effected by Fort Collins at the Power Dam,
Recently, Fort CollnlS renovated the Power Dam by
strengthening the structure itself and by adding a
boat chute and ~ fish ladder designed for
recreational use and piscatorial preservation
respectively.

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The relevant provisions of the 1988 amendments
are the following:

The legal description of the stream segment
designated [in the 1986 application as the
Corridor] has been narrowed to two individual
points of diversion, '" [Le" the Nature Dam and
the Power Dam] [~ 2.].

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Fort Collins has formulated the intent and taken
overt action to create the ... Corridor within which
Fort Collins will construct diversion strucmres and
use water within the Cache La Poudre River for
municipal purposes, including recreational,
piscatorial, fishery, wildlife, and *921 other

beneficial uses. Construction and planning is
underway for a system of trails along the river.
diversion structures within the river, development
of a fishery. preservation and enhancement of
wildlife habitat and aquatic life, as well as other
public purposes [~ 5,A.J.

******

Fort Collins has already initiated construction of
the [Power Dam,] .., which includes a boat chute
for recreational use, and a fish ladder for
piscatorial purposes, This diversion strucmre will-
be used to control. and regulate the flow of the
Poudre River to implement the intended beneficial
uses of water. Additionally, Fon Collins is
designing and plans to construct the [Nature Dam].
It will be a dam across the Poudre River which
will divert water from the current river channel
(carved during the 1983 and 1984 run-offs) back
into the historic river channel adjacent to the
dam.... This diversion structure will control and
regulate the flow of the Poudre River to implement
the intended beneficial uses of water 11l5.B.],

[The 1986] Application is amended ... by
withdrawing the reference to "in-stream rights,"
since the definition of these rights by stream
segments has been narrowed to two individual
points of diversion.... At all times since the date
of appropriation ... [the] purpose was to divert, as
defmed by statute, within the river's natural course
or location, or otherwise c~pture, possess and
control water for the described beneficial uses [11
7].

The 1988 amendments claimed 55 cfs of Poudre
River water for the Nature DaJIl and 55 cfs for the
Power Dam, both with appropriation dates of
February 18, 1986. the same appropriation date for
the 55 cfs of water for the Corridor in the 1986
application.

Due to the changes made by the 1988 amendments,
most of the statements of opposition to the 1986
application were withdrawn, Thornton, however,
along with the Northern Colorado Water
Conservancy District (NCWCD), timely filed
supplemental statements of opposition, objecting to
the 1988 amendments. In its supplemental statement
of opposition, Thornton claimed that its water rights
might be injured by granting the application.
Thornton asserted that before the water court could

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