BOARD02061

• Board Meeting Date: 5/19/2003
• Description: ISF Section - Authorization to Proceed to Trial - Case No. 5-97CW283; Town of Breckenridge
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

STATE OF COLORADO

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Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAJ{:(303)866~74
www.cwcb.state.co.us

Bill Owens
Governor

MEMORANDUM

GregE, Walcher
Executive Director

To: CWCB members

Rod Koharich
CWCB Director

From: Dan Merriman, Ted Kowalski

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Date: May 8, 2003

Re: Agenda Item 16, May 19-20, 2003 Board Meeting-
Stream and Lake Protection Section - Authorization to Proceed to Trial-
Case No. 5-97CW283; Town of Breckenridge

e Background

The Application by the Town of Breckenridge involves the adjudication of an existing year-round
diversion from an unnamed tributary of Miners Creek into North Barton Gulch, North Barton Gulch
is tributary to the Upper Blue River; it enters the Blue River several hundred feet upstream from the
CWCB's upper Blue River instream flow water right. The CWCB's upper Blue River water right is
decreed for 20 cfs (5/1-10/31) and 10 cfs (11/1-4/30). The CWCB also has instream flow water
rights on Miners Creek for 1.5 cfs year round, and on a lower segment of the Blue River for 32 cfs
(5/1-10/31) and 16 cfs (11/1-4/30). Both the Blue River and Miners Creek empty into Dillon
Reservoir.

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In the Application, the Town claimed a 1997 adjudication date and a 1910 appropriation date for
mining, irrigation, and other uses. The Town sought to exchange the water diverted from Miners
Creek into North Barton Gulch up the Blue River to the Goose Pasture Tarn regardless of whether
the CWCB's instream flow water rights on Miners Creek or on the two ISF reaches of the Blue
River are being met. The Town claims that because the existing diversion was an existing practice at
the time the Board appropriated its Miners Creek instream flow water right, that the Board's Miners
Creek instream flow water right is subject to the Towns Miners Creek diversion pursuant to Section
37-92-102(3)(b). The Town's application also requested a new appropriation from the mainstem of
Miners Creek to North Barton Gulch. In 1999, the Town requested that the Board modify its
appropriation on Miners Creek, which would have allowed the Town to divert more often under this
new appropriation. The CWCB Staff conducted some initial investigations into a modification. The
Board, after reviewing those investigations, elected not to pursue a modification, and requested that
the Staff continue to explore settlement options with the Town, The Staffhas explored numerous

Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning