BOARD02509

• Board Meeting Date: 7/9/1992
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos. Partial.
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
Department of Natural Resources
721 Slate Centennial Building
1 31 3 Sherman Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone [phone]
FAX [phone]

STATE OF COLORADO
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MEMORANDUM

Roy Romer
Governor

TO:

Sara Duncan
Deputy Direclor

Members, CWCB

FROM:

Dan Merriman

DATE:

June 26, 1992

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 5, July 9-10, 1992, Board Meeting--
Piedra Report
Status of Wilderness Water Requirements Determinations

Backqround

At its March, 1992, meeting, the Board took public comments on
the USFS report, "Instream Flow Needs Assessment and
Recommendations for the Proposed piedra Wilderness" and formed a
subcommittee to work with the staff and water users on wilderness
water issues. In April, the subcommittee met with the piedra
landowners to discuss the CWCB's role in the Piedra and explain
potential wilderness water right filings. The meeting resulted in
a ge:neral concurrence by the landowners to try to identify an
upstream quantity of water which represented the ultimate water use
in the valley. Since that meeting, the Board's staff has been
working with Chuck Lile and his staff to quantify the amount of
water that would need to be "carved-out" from any recommended
wilderness instream flow amount to provide for the development of
the lands located upstream of the proposed Piedra Wilderness Area.

staff Ana1vsis

The Board staff has reviewed Soil Conservation Service Soil
Survey Maps, aerial photos, and met with the Division 7 Engineer
and his staff to determine the amount of water needed to fully
develop the lands upstream of the proposed Piedra Wilderness Area
(Table 1). Pasture grass is the principal crop grown, and the
staffs have identified 4,775 acres of pasture grass which are
currently being irrigated. staff analysis indicates that an
additional 3,820 acres of pasture grass could be irrigated in the
future. Of that 3,820 acres, 2,940 are privately owned lands, and
880 acres are publicly owned lands. It was assumed that only water
required to develop the privately owned lands should be included in
. the carve-out figure.