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Mr. Bill and Mr. Lee Rooks Page 2 December 29, 1993 ! In 1991, the DOW and DOC decided to pursue increasing the fish production at the BVCF fish a rearing unit to about 200,000 pounds annually. In order to increase production, it became - necessary for the DOW and DOC to pursue the development of a larger supply of water. The spring supply that has been used to operate the existing unit since 1913 is not adequate to supply the proposed expansion. The DOW is the lead agency in securing water for the rearing facility. The options for obtaining additional water consisted of surface and/or groundwater sources. The DOW's preferred option is surface water from Cottonwood Creek along with continued use of the existing spring source and some additional shallow groundwater development. The decision on which water supply option to develop depends On both the economic feasibility and legal availability of water. In 1991, the DOW asked for and obtained assistance from the State Engineer's Office (SEO) in evaluating the groundwater options. In early 1992, the SEO also received a request from homeowners in Johnson Village asking for help to protect their wells. The State Engineer respOnded to the concerns of Johnson Village assuring them that he would do whatever the law requires him to do to protect their water rights (see attached). Since 1991, the DOW and the SEO have been collecting data that would allow for a better. understanding of the ground water resources and which could be used by the SEO to evaluate whether the proposed groundwater use would impact other wells or surface rights. This data would also help the now determine how much groundwater might be available for use in the fish rearing facility. Water level data collected from over 50 wells has been used by the SEO staff to construct a groundwater map of the area south of BuenaVista In addition, the DOW and SEa have conducted aquifer testing using some existing wells. The DOW and SEO have jointly initiated the development of a groundwater model which can be used to analyze groundwater a withdrawal impacts. The model is not yet complete. - The DOW's preferred water supply option is surface water from Cottonwood Creek. During the irrigation season, this option involves routing the Trout Creek Ditch through a pipeline into the BVCF rearing facility raceways and then delivering the water back to the Trout Creek Ditch so that it could continue to irrigate the historically irrigated lands east of the Arkansas River. During the non-irrigation season, the same pipeline would be used to divert water from Cottonwood Creek, which, after use in the fish facility, would be returned to the Arkansas River. The non-irrigation season diversions will be dependent on obtaining a modification of the instream flow on a 2300 foot reach of Cottonwood Creek, held by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB). . During discussions with the CWCB and other interested parties over the potential modification of the Cottonwood Creek instream flow, the DOW was asked to investigate all alternative supplies of water which would not involve modification of the instream flow. The DOW investigated several water supply options and the option that seemed most feasible was development of deep groundwater resources on DOW land adjacent to the BVCF. DOW proposed to construct four (4) large capacity wells in addition to the previously planned shallow groundwater collection system. In order to evaluate the large well option, the DOW with assistance from the SEO began collecting additional data to help the SEO determine if any impacts might occur to other water rights. This would include determining if there would be impacts to DOC wells, which were the closest wells to the proposed four (4) large wells, as well as other wells in the area. The first step a in the data collection was to drill a test hole to determine the subsurface geology. The test hole - has now been drilled and is being used to monitor groundwater levels in the vicinity of the BVCF. .