BOARD02047

• Board Meeting Date: 11/15/2005
• Description: ISF Section - Proposed Terms and Conditions - Horsefly Creek, Montrose County
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 ShennanStteet, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

To: Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Bill Owens
Governor

From: JeffBaessler
Todd Doherty

Russell Georue
Executive Di=tor

Rod Kubarich
CWCB Director

Date November 4, 2005

Rick Brown, Acting
Deputy Di=tor

Re: Agenda Item 18b, November 14-16, 2005- Board Meeting
Stream and Lake Protection - Horsefly Creek Terms and Conditions

Background
On January 25, 2005, the CWCB formed its intent to appropriate instream flow water rights on
Horsefly Creek (Montrose County). Staff received a Notice to Contest for this instream flow
appropriation by the March 31st deadline from the Eldred Colorado Family Limited Partnership
("Eldred"). Also, CWCB Staff received Notices of Party status for this appropriation on April
13,2005 from Trout Unlimited and the Bureau of Land Management. On September 8, 2005, all
parties attended a prehearing conference and submitted their prehearing statements. On October
20,2005, Staff received a signed stipulation from Eldred (attached).

Horseflv Creek
Staff and the Attorney General's Office were able to resolve Eldred's concerns and have agreed
upon terms and conditions to include in the water court application and decree, thus avoiding a
hearing before the Board. The proposed terms and conditions recognize Eldred's decreed and
non-decreed uses as senior to the Board's instream flow appropriation on Horsefly Creek. The
CWCB would agree not to oppose the development of Eldred's conditional rights and changes of
those rights on the condition that those changes do not result in an expansion of the original
contemplated draft. In addition, Trout Unlimited and the Bureau of Land Management agreed
to withdraw their Party Status in this case.

Technical Investigations
The Board was provided detailed information regarding all field data, studies and analyses for
each stream segment at the January 25, 2005 Board meeting. At that meeting, the Board declared
its intent to appropriate the specific instream flow water rights.

Natural Environment Studies
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has conducted field surveys on this stream and found a
natural environment which can be preserved. To quantifY the resources and to evaluate instream
flow and natural lake level requirements, the BLM staff collected biologic and hydraulic data,
and the CWCB staff reviewed and analyzed this data. Based on the results of these
reviews/analyses, the CWCB staff prepared recommendations for the amount of water necessary