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" - 2- Case No. 0lCW305 proposes a plan for augmentation and exchange that will provide a legal water supply for approximately 120 additional water contract users in the District who are now . operating under an annual Substitute Water Supply Plan. A major source of augmentation water for the proposed plan is releases from Ruedi Reservoir, located on the Fryingpan River. Releases from the Reservoir enter the Roaring Fork River at its confluence with the Fryingpan River. Of the 120 water users, 20 are located on the Roaring Fork River upstream of its confluence with the Fryingpan River. These users will be augmented by exchange as the Reservoir releases do not directly enter this reach of river. Case No. 02CW77 proposes a plan for augmentation and exchange for water users that have joined or will join the District's Operating Plan on or after January 1, 2005. The application, referred to as the "Umbrella Plan," seeks to establish specific exchange reaches and limited exchange amounts at locations throughout the District's service area, including the Roaring Fork River upstream of its confluence with the Fryingpan River. Within that reach of the Roaring Fork, the District requests an exchange of up to 2.25 cfs of depletion with a priority date of July 2,2001. The main area of concern in these cases is the reach of the Roaring Fork River between Maroon Creek and the Fryingpan River (hereinafter referred to as the "critical reach"), on which the CWCB holds an ISF water right for 55 cfs (April I-September 30) and 30 cfs (October I-March 31). The District's contractees within this critical reach of the Roaring Fork River are augmented by exchange since the District's various direct flow and storage rights accrue to the Roaring Fork River at or below its confluence with the Fryingpan River. At issue is whether adequate exchange capacity exists in the Roaring Fork River upstream of its confluence with the . Fryingpan River to support the District's appropriative exchanges in the critical reach. In its negotiations with the CWCB staff and Attorney General's Office regarding these cases, the District asserted that sufficient exchange capacity exists in the Roaring Fork River above its confluence with the Fryingpan River to support the exchanges proposed in the two water court applications. According to the District, even in a severe drought year such as 2002, sufficient water was available to satisfy both the 55 cfs instream flow and proposed exchanges, but the District's research indicates that in 2002, two ditches on the critical reach of the Roaring Fork River were diverting a combined total of approximately 18 cfs above their decreed amounts. Statistical analyses completed by Resource Engineering, Inc., the District's consultant, conclude that Roaring Fork River stream flows will drop to levels observed in August and September 2002 on a projected recurrence interval between I year in 100 to I year in 300. Staff is consulting with the Division of Water Resources ("DWR") on these analyses. To address the CWCB's need for certainty in protection of its ISF water rights, the District explored several alternatives designed to increase water supply to the critical reach of the Roaring Fork River. Alternatives considered by District include: acquisition of senior water rights within the critical reach, purchase of historic consumptive use credits located in the upper basin near Aspen, Colorado, and construction of a pump and pipeline system that would pump water from the Roaring Fork River below its confluence with the Fryingpan River and deliver it to the upstream reach. Despite over a year of effort and significant expenditures on research and negotiations, the BWCD was unable to implement any of the considered alternatives. Owners of . the targeted water rights generally were not interested in selling their rights at prices close to Flood Protection. Water Project Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection Water Supply Protection. Conservation Planning