WSP06745

• File Number: 8126.700
• Description: Arkansas River Coordinating Committee - Committees - Subcommittees
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 12/1/1994
• Author: AWRA
• Title: Water Resources Bulletin - Administrative Institutional and Structural Characteristics of an Active Water Market
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

has managed to become so well established and
successful, I have chosen to focus on the institutional
characteristics and composition of this market.
Information about water right transfers is often
difficult to find, in part due to the nature of private
market transactions, and because many details of
these transactions are not publicly recorded or com-
piled in a central location, The information reported
in this paper on the C-BT market has been compiled
from a large number of sources including (unless oth-
erwise indicated); Monthly Minutes ofNCWCD Board
Meetings (1970-1994), NCWCD records and personal
communication (Conley, Werner and Miller, NCWCD,
var:ous times), published and unpublished research
(Person and Michelsen, 1994; Michelsen and Young,
1992; MacDonnell, 1990; Gardner and Miller, 1983),
newsletters (e,g, Water Strategist and Water Market
Update, 1986-1994), and books (Tyler, 1992; Saliba
and Bush, 1987; National Research Council, 1992).
Specific sources are described in more detail in Person
and Michelsen (1994),

C,BT PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Colorado, Big Thompson (C-BT) project was
constructed by the U,S. Bureau of Reclamation to pro,
vide supplemental water supplies for agricultural,
municipal and industrial uses in northeastern Col-
orado. Started in 1938 under a repayment contract
between the United States and the Northern Colorado
Water Conservancy District, the project became fully
operational in 1957. The purpose of the C-BT project
";as - and still is - to provide supplemental water
from the Upper Colorado River basin to offset the
fluctuations in natural supply in the South Platte
River basin, Water is diverted from the Colorado
River into the Adams Tunnel which transfers water
from the west slope of the Rocky Mountains under the
continental divide in Rocky Mountain ~':ational Park
to the Big Thompson River on the east slope where
there is an extensive system for storage and delivery
along the Colorado Front Range.
The area served by the NCWCD extends from
Broomfield (adjacent to, but excluding Denver) to
north of Fort Collins, and then east along the South
Platte River to Greeley and eventually Julesburg at
the Nebraska border, The District includes the cities
of Boulder, Broomfield, Estes Park Fort Collins Fort
Morgan, Greeley, Longmont, Loveiand, and Ste'rling,
The cities in the region have grown rapidly, Although
the project is authorized to provide water to the
Nebraska border, most of the entitlements are held in
Boulder, Larimer, and Weld counties, The population
in these three counties increased from 213,000 in

WATER RESOURCES BULLETIN

Michelsen

1961 to over 572,000 in 1992, Agriculture continues to
be an important, but diminishing, part of the economy
of the region, The value of crops grown within the
NCWCD boundaries was $298,0 million in 1992, down
from $355.6 million (1992$) in 1961.
The U.S, Bureau of Reclamation actually holds the
water rights granted to the Federal Government by
the state of Colorado to supply the C-BT project. The
NCWCD is then granted, by contract, the perpetual
right to use all water made available by the construc-
tion and operation of the C-BT project, provided it
abides by the terms and conditions of the repayment
contract (Ruter Strategist, 1990), Some water transfer
issues faced by managers of other Bureau of Reclama-
tion projects are non, issues here, in part because the
project was authorized to be multipurpose and is
operated by the NCWCD, The NCWCD is governed by
a twelve member appointed board with the authority
to allocate, reallocate (transfer) and set assessment
rates on water allotment contracts, The district is also
authorized to assess a mill levy on all land within the
district boundaries irrespective of the direct delivery
of water (MacDonnell, 1990), Permanent ownership
and transfer of water allotments can only be approved
for beneficial uses within the project area boundaries,

C,BT PROJECT ALLOTMENTS

C-BT project water right allotments are defined in
terms of a 1/310,000 share or "acre-foot unit," with
each unit re!1resenting an equal claim on available
project supp.ies, Every year, the NCWCD Board of
Directors determines an "April Quota" which sets the
maximum amount of water to be available from pro-
ject supplies for the current year, A quota of 100 per-
cent means that 310,000 acre-feet of water can be
used by the shareholders during that season, in which
case one C.BT 'nit confers a right to one acre-foot of
project water, A 60 percent quota would yield 0,60
acre-foot per C,BT unit. The annual quota is set
according to hydrologic conditions (snowpack, runoff
forecast, soil moisture, reservoir storage) and antici-
pated water demand, However, the April quota may
be increased at any time by the board when required
by the hydrologic conditions of the year. In eleven
years since 1957, a second additional quota from 10 to
30 percent has been declared, In accordance with the
primary purpose of the project, the board attempts to
import and store west slope water on the east slope
during wet years (set a lower quota) to make more
project water available for delivery to the east slope
during dry years,
Figure 1 illustrates the history of annual quotas
and deliveries from 1957 through 1993 (Person and

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