BOARD01811

• Board Meeting Date: 5/11/1998
• Description: Rio Grande Basin Issues - Closed Basin Project Issues
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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May 11-12, 1998 CWCB Meeting
Agenda Item 29c, CLOSED BASIN PROJECT ISSUES
Page 2 of6

section 104 of PL 92-5141. The Project also provided for the purchase, development and
enhancement of several wildlife mitigation areas,

Has the Closed Basin Project been operated in compliance with public law
92-514? Section 103 of the authorizing legislation established an Operating Committee
consisting of three members: one appointed by the Secretary of Interior, one appointed by
the CWCB and one appointed by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District. While the
Secretary is charged with the responsibility of operating the Project, the Operating
Committee is authorized to determine whether the Project is being operated in accordance
with the federal requirements, The Operating Committee "shall inform the Secretary if
the operation of the Project fails to meet the requirements of Section 102 or adversely
affects the beneficial use of water in the Rio Grande Basin in Colorado as defined in
Article I (c) of the Rio Grande compact (53 stat 785)," Section 102 of the authorizing
legislation requires, in essence, a "control system of observation wells, which shall be
designed to provide positive identification of any fluctuations in the water table of the
area surrounding the Project attributable to operation of the Project," and instructs the
Secretary to operate the Project in a manner that will "not cause the water table available
for any irrigation or domestic wells in existence outside the Project boundary prior to the
construction of the Project to drop more than two feet" and in a manner that "will not
cause reduction of artesian flows in existence prior to the construction of the Project."

In accordance with this legislation, the Operating Committee was formed in 1981
and became active when the Project began test operations in September 1985, Operating
Committee meetings have normally been scheduled at least twice a year since 1989,
typically in the spring and fall of each year, These meetings are devoted, in large part, to
the review of reports from the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and the Colorado Division
of Water Resources (DWR), The BOR typically reports on groundwater data and
changes in groundwater levels at the Project boundaries, compliance with water quality

I PL 92-514, Section 104, provides the following priorities:
(I) To assist in making the annual delivery of water at the gaging station on the Rio Grande near
Lobatos, Colorado, as required by article 1II of the Rio Grande compact: provided, that the total amount of
water delivered for this purpose shall not exceed an aggregate of six hundred thousand acre-feet for any
period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series beginning with the first day of
January next succeeding the year in which the Secretary detennined that the project authorized by this Act
is operational.
(2) To maintain the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge and the Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area:
provided, that the amount of project salvaged water delivered to the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge and
the Blanca Habitat Area shall not exceed five thousand three hundred acre-feet annually, The Secretary is
authorized to negotiate and enter into an agreement with the Rio Grande Water Conservation District which
provides for the temporary delivery of project salvaged water to the Refuge and Habitat Area in those years
in which there is not sufficient water to fully satisfy the purposes of both paragraphs (1) and (2) of this
subsection.
(3) To apply to the reduction and elimination of any accumulated deficit in deliveries by Colorado as
is detennined to exist by the Rio Grande Compact Commission under article VI of the Rio Grande compact
at the end of the compact water years in which the Secretary first detennines the project to be operational.
(4) For irrigation or other beneficial uses in Colorado: provided, that no water shall be delivered until
agreements between the United States and water users in Colorado, or the Rio Grande Water Conservation
District acting for them, have been executed providing for the repayment of such construction costs as in
the opinion of the Secretary are appropriate and within the ability of the users to pay, and for the payment
of all of the costs of operation and maintenance which are allocable to the production of this priority 4
water.