BOARD02416

• Board Meeting Date: 7/23/2002
• Description: ISF Section - Water Acquisitions Program - Donation of Water Rights - South Fork Poudre River and Poudre
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

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

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

GregE. Walcher
Executive Director

TO:

Members, CWCB

Rod Kuharich
eWeB Director

FROM:

Dan Merriman
Anne Janicki

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

DATE: July 3,2002

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 23, July 23-24,2002, Board Meeting--
Water Acquisition Program - Donation of Water Rights
S. Fork Poudre River and Poudre River

Backj!round

In December 2001, the City of Fort Collins conveyed several senior water rights to the Board via a
Quit Claim Deed. The water rights, which total 5.95 cfs, were decreed in 1953 for irrigation use on
the Rockwell Ranch in the South Fork Poudre drainage, and carry a 1888 priority date. The City
conveyed the rights to the Board as a condition of a land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service
which required that these rights be conveyed to the CWCB for instream flows in the South Fork and
mainstem Poudre Rivers (see attached map). The Board already holds instream flow water rights on
Little Beaver Creek, S. Fork Cache la Poudre River and the mainstem Poudre. These conveyed
rights divert within the instream flow reaches on Little Beaver Creek and the S. Fork Poudre River,
and are senior to the Board's 1978 water rights on those streams. The Board's water right on the
mainstem Poudre carries a 1985 priority date.

Staff has contacted the local water commissioner, reviewed the records for the conveyed water
rights, and researched other water rights on both the South Fork and mainstem Poudre Rivers. Staff
has determined that there are no other water rights that divert water directly from the subject reaches
of stream. There are water rights located upstrearn and on tributaries, but the Rockwell rights are
junior and cannot affect those priorities. Additionally, there are no historic diyersion records
available for the Rockwell Ranch water rights. According to the water commissioner, no records
were kept for the rights, although the rights were diverted for irrigation prior to Ft. Collins'
acquisition of the ranch.

The facts in this case present a unique circumstance for the Water Acquisition Program. Since there
are no other diversions within the specified stream reaches, it would be difficult to improve upon the
Board's existing priorities. The instream flow rights on Little Beaver, the South Fork and the
mainstem are the next senior priority to the Rockwell Ranch water rights in the subject reaches. A
Flood Protection. Watee Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning