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Last modified
1/26/2010 12:47:42 PM
Creation date
10/11/2006 11:26:45 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Water Supply Protection
File Number
8546.100
Description
AWDI - Project Description
State
CO
Basin
Rio Grande
Water Division
3
Date
9/27/1991
Title
General Newspaper Articles: October 1 1990 - September 27 1991
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
News Article/Press Release
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<br />il{)S1:01) <br /> <br />denouncing AWDI also were much- <br />photographed features of community <br />parades. <br />Valley residents have also donated to <br />the Citizens for San Luis Valley Water <br />and a Michael Martin MurphY benefit <br />concert boosted the group' s fundraising <br />efforts last summer. <br />"If I were one of th. investors in <br />AWDI, I'd be preny angry by now," <br />says Gosar. "There was no calculation <br />of the losses, there was no downside in <br />their plan. They didn'l oalculate any <br />kind of objection, or serious objection, <br />to this." <br />Meanwhile ditch companies and <br />pump irrigators have dropped tradition- <br />al rivalries to join in fighting A WDI. <br />"One of the best things that's come of <br />this is that the whole Valley is pulling <br />together," says Ralph Curtis, general <br />manager of the Rio Grande Water Con- <br />servation District (RGWCD). In the <br />past, Valley groups have fought with <br />each other over the fragile balance of <br />water. Now, the joint objectors have ral- <br />lied behind the RGWCD to battle <br />AWDI. <br />Their fears are based on their ex- <br />perience with irrigation in the San Luis <br />Valley. The Valley's water system is the <br />kind that keeps hydrologists-and <br />irrigators-awake at night. <br />"Over the years, farmers have deve- <br />loped a water management system that <br />keeps the confined and unconfined <br />aquifers in a delicate balance," says <br />Ralph Curtis of the Rio Grande Water <br />Conservation District. "Any more use <br />of that groundwater would upset the <br />delicate balance and the ag economy of <br />the Valley goes down the tube...so <br />would everything else here," says <br />Curtis. <br />Mountains enclose the top of the Val- <br />ley near Poncha Pass. A WDI plans to <br />pipe its water over the pass to Antero <br />Reservoir. The Sangre de Cristos run <br />down the Valley's east side. The west <br />side is defined by the towering peaks of <br />the San Juans. Both the Rio Grande <br />River, and its tributary the Conejos <br />River, begin from snowmelt high in the <br />San Juans and flow through the Valley's <br />floor. <br />The Rio Grande River is over- <br />appropriated; junior water rights holders <br />can only expect to get water in periods <br />of extremely high flows, says Curtis. <br />New groundwater rights have been <br />non-existent for years. The Valley has <br />two aquifers under its floor which are <br />separated, but not sealed, by lens-like <br />layers of blue clay. No new well permits <br />have been allowed since 1971 into the <br /> <br />October I, 1990 <br /> <br />shallow, "unconfined" aquifer that lies <br />over a blue clay layer, says Vandiver. <br />While it is primarily recharged by sur <br />face water, water officials believe that <br />some 25-30"10 of its recharge comes from <br />upward leakage from the underlying <br />artesian aquifer. <br />The only way a farmer has been able <br />to get a permit into the unconfined <br />aquifer is to have an officially- <br />sanctioned "augmentation plan" to <br />provide recharge water to the aquifer. <br />That means he must have surplus sur- <br />face water rights that he can dedicate for <br />use as recharge water. <br />Moreover, no new irrigation wells <br />have been allowed to puncture the deep, <br />artesian-pressured "confined" aquifer <br />since 1970. The U.S. Gec:llogical Survey <br />has estimated that as much as 2 billion <br />acre-feet of water have been stored <br />throughout geologic time in that aquif- <br />er. That is the aquifer A WDI proposes <br />to tap. <br />"We originally got interested in the <br />water when the Closed Basin Project <br />started condemning land for their <br />project," says Dale Schaffer. (The <br />Closed Basin Project salvages sump <br />water from a low-lying area of the Val- <br />ley and has two of its 170 salvage wells <br />on the Baca.) <br />"At that time, we went out and did <br />our own engineering work and ascer- <br />tained that there was a <br />considerable amount of <br />water in the Valley. That <br />water, in OUf opinion, was <br />subject to additional de- <br />velopment. " <br />That, apparently, will <br />be the crux of the battle. <br />The state engfneer's office <br />determined in 1970 "that <br />the confined (artesian) <br />aquifer was tributary to <br />the Rio Grande and to the <br />Conejos and that new <br />. depletions of the confined <br />aquifer would effect those <br />rivers," says Steve Van- <br />diver, state water en- <br />gineer. <br />"In 1970 the state en- <br />gineer ceased issuing per <br />mits for any new wells in <br /> <br />The Rio Grande flows <br />through the San Luis <br />Valley. However, a river <br />compact agreement <br />with New Mexico <br />means much of the Rio <br />Grande's water must <br />leave Colorado. <br /> <br /> <br />the deep aquifer except for domestic <br />house or livestock wells. <br />"We've seen tremendous fluctuations <br />in the confined aquifer levels over the <br />past 10-15 years," says Vandiver. <br />"We went through a real bad drought <br />cycle in the '70s when we saw the con- <br />fined aquifer production go way down. <br />Many, many (artesian) wells ceased to <br />flow at all, and it dropped to a level that <br />people couldn't get water out of them," <br />recounts Vandiver. <br />The aquifer recovered after three <br />record wet years in a row, 1985, 1986 <br />and 1987, he says. "All of the streams <br />in the Valley ran well again, and we had <br />a tremendous recovery in the confined <br />aquifer. Some wells that hadn't flowed <br />in 20 years started flowing again allover <br />the Valley." A WDI filed its water rights <br />application in December 1986. <br />The State of Colorado is an objector <br />to A WDI's application and the state <br />water engineer's office is "doing'much <br />of the technical work from the engineer- <br />ing and computer modelling point of <br />view," Steve Vandiver reports. "In the <br />end, I guess it will be our groundwater <br />(computer) model against theirs," Van- <br />diver says. <br />One of the things that should help the <br />accuracy of the computer models is the <br />massive amount of data being generat- <br />Continued on page 18 <br /> <br />Christine Anderson Photo <br /> <br /> <br />15 <br />
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