SPDSS_Task7-2_WellUseWellAugmentationPlans

APPENDIX A-4 Bijou Canal Augmentation Plan -Plan ID 0103339 The Bijou Reservoir and Irrigation Company is a mutual ditch company in Morgan County on the south side of the South Platte River in Water District 1 (see Figure 1). The Bijou Augmentation Plan decree (Consolidated Case Nos. W-2704 and W-9172-78) consists of 196 wells, a 1972 priority direct flow water right and 16 recharge facilities. Thirteen of the recharge sites are in the Bijou Canal itself (11) or in-channel recharge sites on Bijou Creek (1) and Kiowa Creek (1). The other recharge sites included in the plan are Recharge Pond Nos. 1 and 2 and Bijou Reservoir No. 2. All recharge sites are active and are located within the Bijou Canal service area. An operational recharge reservoir, Goedert Reservoir, was decreed in Case No. 94CW142, and subsequently constructed. The Bijou Canal Co. can also bypass portions of its direct flow water right in the South Platte River as direct augmentation supplies in its original augmentation plan decree. General decree language allowing the use of "other supplies" permits Bijou Canal Co. to bypass its storage rights in the South Platte River as direct augmentation supplies. Although bypasses for direct augmentation is currently allowed, the ditch company's engineer advised the Division 1 Engineer indicated this practice will need to be better defined in a Water Court application to amend the augmentation plan. The number of wells associated with the augmentation plan from sources reviewed for this effort is summarized in Table 1. Table 1 Wells Associated with Bijou Augmentation Plan (Plan ID 0103339) Source Number of Wells W-2704 and W-9172-8 decrees 196 HydroBase association (Version 20060816) 206 Tied to acreage in GIS Irrigated Acreage Assessment* 196 User interview 212 * Subset of HydroBase association using wells decreed for irrigation with decreed rates greater than 50 gpm and specifically tied to lands in the 2001 Irrigated Acreage Assessment. A number of possible explanations exist for the variation in number of wells listed in the decree versus HydroBase, including: • Some augmentation plan decrees allow wells to be added to the plan without re-adjudicating the plan. • Some wells listed in HydroBase may be recharge wells, augmentation wells, or decreed for other uses. • Some wells may have been replaced and the original wells are still included in HydroBase. A number of possible explanations exist for the variation in number of wells tied to acreage from the list of wells in HydroBase, including: • Wells may be mis-located in the GIS coverage and therefore not assigned to irrigated parcel(s). • Wells are not active. • Wells not decreed or decreed for less than 50 gallons per minute. • Wells are decreed for other uses (e.g., augmentation, recharge, domestic, municipal, commercial, stock water, etc.). A-26 ofA-106