BOARD02653

• Board Meeting Date: 9/13/2005
• Description: ISF Section - Injury with Mitigation Proposal - Case Nos. 7-83CW45 and 4-83CW14, US Bureau of Reclamation Paradox Salinity Control Unit
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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ST A TE 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.u5

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

To:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Russell George
Executive Director

From: Dan Merriman and Linda Bassi
Stream and Lake Protection Section

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Date: August 29, 2005

Rick Brown
Acting Deputy
Director

Re:

Agenda No. 22, September 13-14, 2005 Board Meeting: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Paradox Salinity Control Unit; (Case Nos. 7-83CW45 and 4-83CWI4) -- Injury with
Miti~ation Proposal

This agenda item addresses an injury with mitigation proposal under [SF Rule 8i. (3) (Injury
Accepted with Mitigation). This is the first meeting of the two-meeting process required by Rule
8i.(3). The proposal is different from the injury with mitigation proposals recently considered by
the Board in that it involves a plan for augmentation decreed in 1986 rather than a pre-trial
resolution.

Backl!round

The Board holds an in stream flow water right on the Dolores River for 78 cfs from McPhee Dam
to the confluence with the San Miguel River, decreed by the Division 7 Water Court on
September 29, 1975 in Case No. 75WI346 ("Dolores River ISF") with an appropriation date of
May I, 1975. The Bureau of Reclamation ("Reclamation") operates the Paradox Valley Unit
("the Unit"), which is located adjacent to the Dolores River near Bedrock, Colorado. (See
attached map). The Dolores River picks up an estimated 205,000 tons of salt annually as it
crosses Paradox Valley, primarily from the surfacing of natural brine groundwater. The Unit is
designed to prevent this natural salt load from entering the river and degrading the water quality
of the Dolores River downstream of the Unit and the main stem of the Colorado River. The Unit
intercepts the brine groundwater before it enters the Dolores River and disposes the brine by
deep well injection. Major project facilities include a brine production well field, brine surface
treatment facility, injection facility, a 15,932 feet deep injection well, and associated roads,
pipelines, and electrical facilities.

In 1983, to enable full operation of the Unit, Reclamation applied for and obtained a decree for a
change of water rights and plan for augmentation in Case Nos. 83CW45 (Water Division 7) and