BOARD01567

• Board Meeting Date: 5/1/1975
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

The statutory authority granted to this board is being badly abused.
In Water Division No. 4 the water court has approved determinations
by the referee, without opposition or protest from this board, to make
instream appropriations. Pitkin County has joined this board as an
involuntary applicant in Roaring Fork River adjudications for unrealistic
minimum stream flows. We are not advised as to what action the board
took with regard to these latter claims.

As this board is well aware, junior appropriators on a stream, have the
right, in actions involving a change of point of diversion, or of use,
to suggest limitations as to the proposed change which would preclude
interference with the junior's rights.

The Board of Directors of the Colorado River Water Conservation District
has by resolution, approved Senator Anderson's proposed amendment as
introduced in S.B. No. 413.

I

We therefore request that this board instruct its attorney to suspend
pending adjudications and refrain from considering other adjudication
requests until the legislature acts on S.B. 413."

Now, as amended, Mr. Chairman, those are my remarks. I believe they
are as the board has instructed me to deliver them to you. I do have
Mr. Halcomb's statement, if all of the board and counsel did not get
copies.

Mr. Stapleton: I am sure members of the board would have some questions
of you or Mr. Halcomb. Mr. Halcomb, do you have any amplifying state-
ments that you would like to make?

Mr. Halcomb: Thank you, Mr. Stapleton. I wanted to answer one question
which came up from our board. I am not particularly familiar with the
situation on Beaver Creek, nor the upper reaches of the Crystal River,
but I am somewhat familiar with the reaches of the Crystal River from
Avalanche Creek. I would like to say that a minimum three-fourths of
the area involved on both sides of the river is private land. At
least twice in the last five years you could walk across the Crystal
River at the bridge just south of Carbondale, Colorado, and not get
your feet wet, because the irrigation diversions above were taking the
entire supply. I think only a little trickle that was coming down
would not get through the irrigation works. Those ditches are irri-
gating extensive areas of ground from the headgate clear down to the
confluence of Crystal River with the Roaring Fork River. By the time
you get a half mile down the stream, or hike a mile down the stream,
the river is practically where it was before. In other words, the
return flows are coming in.

Now, this board's attorney is aware of the fact that the river district
is protesting Union Oil's change of agricultural rights to industrial
purposes, on the grounds that it will change the regiment of the river.
It is our concern that the effect of setting aside one hundred second
feet of water, for instance, from May to September, and sixty second
feet of water from October to April, would then disallow those irrigators

I

-12-