BOARD01906

• Board Meeting Date: 3/29/1999
• Description: ISF Section - Proposed Injury with Mitigation/Modification - Case No. 5-97CW283, Breckenridge
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Blue River instream flow water rights were not injured by the proposed exchange of trans-
drainage water.

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Current Status
The CWCB staff has met with the Applicants' engineer and attorney to discuss the Board's
concerns in this case. Pursuant to Section 9.41 of the CWCB's Rules, staff discussed the
possibility of agreeing to a pretrial resolution that would provide full protection to the Board's
instream flow water rights. Instead, Applicant has elected to pursue a pretrial resolution of
"Injury Accepted with Mitigation", as described in Section 9.43 of the Rules.

By letter dated December 22, 1998, Applicant requested an opportunity to present the facts of
this case to the Board and request Board approval for "Injury Accepted with Mitigation". On
February 18, 1999, staff received the Applicant's proposed draft ruling (attached) and other
evidence supporting their mitigation proposal. Under Paragraph 8 of the proposed ruling,
Applicant proposes to:

1) Recognize a flow of 1.5 cfs immediately below its point of diversion on Miners Creek
from May through August, and
2) Recognize a flow of 0.25 cfs immediately below its point of diversion on Miners
Creek and a flow of 1.5 cfs at a point of compliance located approximately 1.25 miles
downstream of its diversion structure, from September through April.

The proposed terms would fully protect the Board's 1.5 cfs instream flow on Miners Creek from tit
May through August. However, the flow of Miners Creek could fall below the amount decreed
to the Board in the 1.25-mile reach of stream between the Applicant's point of diversion and the
proposed point of compliance from September through April. Applicant proposes to mitigate
this impact to the Board's Miners Creek instream flow by dedicating one-half of the amount of
water diverted from Miners Creek to the Board's Blue River instream flow water right during the
months of December through March

Staff analyzed this mitigation proposal utilizing hydrologic information provided by the
Applicant in their October 1998 engineering report. The table below summarizes the amounts of
water made available in the CWCB's Blue River instream flow, and to the Applicant, based on
the terms proposed in the decree. lbis summary is based on the average flows provided in Table
3 of the Applicant's engineering report, the assumption that the flow of Miners Creek will not
fall below 0.25 cfs from September through April, and a 50/50 split of the water diverted from
December through March. Based on this analysis, the benefits to the Board's Blue River
instream flow right appear to be minimal and may not mitigate the proposed impacts to the
Board's Miners Creek instream flow.

Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March Apr.
Avg. Flow (cfs) 0.92 0.65 0.48 0.38 0.30 0.25 0.24 0.47
Minus 0.25 cfs 0.67 0.40 0.23 0.13 0.05 0.00 -0.01 0.22
Benefit to Applicant (cfs) 0.67 0.40 0.23 0.065 0.025 0.00 0.00 0.22
Benefit to CWCB (cfs) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.065 0.025 0.00 0.00 0.00

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