BOARD02010

• Board Meeting Date: 9/24/2001
• Description: Snowmass Water and Sanitation District 404 Permit
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

our assurances that these are the routes you are : going to pursue would be the fact _
that it's in the record at this meeting." [d. . .

Just four days later, the Caucus providedlwritten and oral statements at the
June 27, 1978, Cotps public hearing. Mr. Child $howed the Caucus's reliance on the
assurances it had been given in the June 23 meeting by refening to that meeting as a
predicate for his statement that, "The Snowmass-Capitol Creek Caucus feels that we
have a common ground of understanding with the new owners of the Snowmass
Cotporations and the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District." Ex. 7 at 1. The
Caucus insisted that specific commitments by t;he District be made conditions of the
~ 404 permit, and made its withdrawal of oppos~tion to the permit contingent upon
receiving those commitments. Id. at 3. !

At the hearing, the hearing officer indicated the level of controversy was
higher than expected, that the Cotps could condition the permit, and that he would
have to go back to the office and see how objections could be addressed. Transcript
of hearing, Ex. 18. The District stressed that it peeded an answer soon so as to build
the structure that summer. .

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After the public hearing, on August 8, 19f8, the Caucus entered into an
agreement with the District. Ex. 8. The Caucus agreement incotporated provisions
of the earlier County agreement, which included the promise to establish a bypass .-
flow to protect the fishery, "to the extent applic\1ble." The District also agreed to _
continue to implement a water conservation program and to continue to assess the
feasibility of bringing additional storage into th;e District's system. Id. For its part,
the Caucus agreed to write the Cotps and with4raw its opposition to the permit. By
letter dated August 15, 1978, the Caucus wrote ~o the Cotps and advised that it had
entered into an agreement with the District amI- therefore withdrew its objection.
Only then did the Cotps sign and issue the peqrnt on September 22, 1978.

In 1995, the Caucus rued a lawsuit again$t the District and Pitkin County,
alleging that the District had breached the agnjement it entered into with the Caucus
in 1978. Snowmass - Capitol Creek Caucus Yo ~nowmass Waterand Sanitation
Disttict, Case No. 95CV16, Pitkin County Dist1jct Court. In particular, the Caucus
challenged the District's conduct on three SnoWmass Creek water-use issues which
ron parallel to, but have no direct bearing upor}, the bypass flow issue which is the
subject of this petition. Specifically, the CaucUs challenged the District's (a) entry
into water service contracts beyond the bound4ries of the District as they existed in
1978; (b) expansion of the allowable uses of its [water to include snowmaking; and (c)
failure to construct or incotporate into its syste~ alternative storage sites at Ziegler
Reservoir, Vidal Gulch, or Wudcat Reservoir. the court found that the District had
not violated the agreement by these actions or;omissions, and the Caucus did not

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