WSP08323

• File Number: 8051
• Description: Area of Origin
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 12/1/1985
• Title: Guidelines for Developing Area-Of-Origin Compensation -- A Research Report Prepared for the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

..

East Slope conservancy districts gained access to exceedingly low

cost federal funding and construction support.

It was a deal no

one could turn down.

Seen in this light, it is clear why the Colorado law is

aimed only at conservancy districts.

These entities were

authorized specifically to be able to tap into federal reclama-

tion funding.

Federal largess enabled the additional cost

r epr e sen ted by compensa tory storage to be more eas i ly absorbed

into project costs.

Since the City of Denver was financing its

projects without federal support it was excluded from having to

provide compensatory storage.

Wi th major federal financing for water storage projects no

longer available it is time to reevaluate the compensatory

storage concept.

Such projects are expensive to build.

There

are few remaining sites that are both technically desirable and

environmentally and politically acceptable.

Apparently little

demand has yet developed for the storage already constructed.92

Of course, the law itself does not require construction of

compensatory storage.

It only requires that present appropria-

don and prospective consumptive uses of water not be "impaired

nor increased in cost at the expense of the water users within

92In 1984 Exxon obtained the first long-term service
contract from the Bureau of Reclamation for 7,200 acre-feet of
water from Ruedi Reservoir to be used in connection with its
Colony Oil Shale Project. Porzak, "Innovative Transfer and
Exchange Plans," Paper presented at Conference on Colorado Water
Issues and Options, October 9, 1985 at 9.

!

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