SPDSS_Task7-2_WellUseWellAugmentationPlans

• Title: SPDSS Task 7.2 - Well Use and Well Augmentation Plans
• Description: This memorandum and associated appendices characterizes the 20 largest well augmentation plans and develops recommendations for representing well use and augmentation in SPDSS modeling efforts.
• Decision Support - Doc Type: Task Memorandum
• Date: 12/14/2007
• DSS Category: Groundwater
• DSS: South Platte
• Basin: South Platte
• Contract/PO #: C153953
• Grant Type: Non-Reimbursable
• Bill Number: SB01-157, HB02-1152, SB03-110, HB04-1221, SB05-084, HB06-1313, SB07-122
• Prepared By: Leonard Rice Engineering

• The association of a well to the augmentation plan ID may be incorrect in HydroBase.
System Overview
The Bijou Augmentation Plan is used to divert junior direct flow and/or storage recharge rights,
in priority, when it is available in the South Platte River. Diversions to recharge through the
Bijou Canal are made whenever the. The ditch company prefers to run recharge water when there
is no irrigation water carried through the system because they receive recharge credit for the
ditch loss at those times. Recharge water cannot be stored into Bijou Reservoir No. 2 until the
reservoir completes the first fill under its storage right, used for supplemental irrigation purposes.
Per the decree, lagged accretions to the South Platte River from diversions to recharge are
accounted via the Stream Depletion Factor (SDF) method. None of the wells were historically
metered or have calibrated electric coefficients; therefore, no actual pump records are available.
Out-of-priority lagged well depletions are administered in the river below the Bijou Canal
headgate.
Recommendations
Recommendations for representing the Bijou augmentation plan in the initial development of the
SPDSS StateMod Water Resources Planning Model input files are presented below based on
review of the decrees and interviews with canal company personnel and Division 1 personnel.
Augmentation Plan Demands
To represent pumping for the entire SPDSS study period (1950 to present), well pumping to
supply irrigated lands should be estimated by the consumptive use algorithm in StateCU and
StateMod, to meet the irrigation water requirement less simulated surface water deliveries (if
applicable). Lagged well depletions affect river flows based on timing and location factors
defined in StateMod input files. Lagged depletions and the supplies used to meet those
obligations should be accounted in one Bijou Canal Well Depletions Plan structure (ID 0103339)
below the ditch corresponding with administration of the augmentation plan.
• The five wells in the Fort Morgan Farms augmentation plan (Plan ID 0102574) irrigate some
lands that are also irrigated by wells associated with the Bijou augmentation plan. No
recharge water rights, ditches, or recharge sites are associated with the Fort Morgan Farms
augmentation plan in HydroBase (Version 20060816). To simplify representation of the
smaller well augmentation plan, river depletions associated with the well use under the Fort
Morgan Farms plan should be aggregated with the Bijou Canal plan well depletions (ID
0103339) during the surface water modeling effort.
Augmentation Plan Supplies
Various sources are typically available to supply water to replace lagged well depletions. The
sources and the structures related to the Bijou augmentation plan recommended for inclusion in
the SPDSS model are summarized in Table 2. Augmentation supplies are as follows:
• Recharge rights from the river for the Bijou augmentation plan are summarized in Table 3.
• Recharge well rights and augmentation well rights are summarized in Table 4.
Model operations to supply well depletions (stored under plan ID 0103339) are discussed in the
augmentation plan operations section.
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