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MOSES, WITTEMYER, HARRISON AND WOODRUFF, P.C. <br />MYIDL aARRaDN •. <br />1U1E{ t IgM'OON6RY <br />717/D,aY /. RaArpl <br />KRONKl1 A. FIRLDiO <br />~~ <br />IICaARD I. MBInp' <br />OAaR[e. D.CAR76R <br />IRIAM A.IOVV1761 <br />uw ort~ces <br />1007 WAWUr4Rt8r.9U17rJOD <br />ODI11D0. COIDMW 10707 <br />TFlFP110Ni p07)N)47{7 <br />. rAJC: p07) NH71f: <br />A DDRa4 NRRffiPQIDFN('B TO; <br />R 0. ao% isq <br />80VLDEA. CO W700.NM <br />March 8, 2005 <br />CRARLR3K WOODRD~I <br />(lMI.NMl <br />GODN98. <br />RARNIr I. MOSS{ <br />Paul Gesso <br />Maween Jacoby <br />Banks and Gesso I.I,C <br />720 Kipling Street, Suite 117 <br />Lakewood, CO 80215 <br />Re: Water Sugply for King~ountain Gravel Opgration. Routt ounty_ Colorado <br />Dear Paul and Maureen; <br />• You have asked me to address the status of water rights acquired by Angus <br />Investment LL.C with the King Mountain gravel mining propeity and to identify the options for <br />~ obtaining a water supply for the expanded gravel operation that is the subject ofa permit application <br />I pending before the State Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG). <br />l Angus Invesnent acquired the King Mountain gravel property and associated water <br />rights in June 2004. The water rights acquired with that property include various decreed priorities <br />for diversion from Egeria Creek and various springs tributary ro Egeria Creek or Smith Creek with <br />appropriadon dates ranging from August 1889 to December 1991. The water rights are described <br />on the bargain and sale deed attached to this letter. The older water rights are adjudicated for <br />L irrigation use, while some of the moro junior water rights are adjudicated for irrigation, <br />stockwattring, domestic, fire protection and fish culture, including several small storage water rights. <br />. It is my understanding that a small gravel extraction operation has been operating at <br />the site for a number of years, with water being diverted for dust suppression atrd, perhaps, some <br />small amount of gravel washing. The water used for those purposes has been diverted from Smith <br />~_. - Creek just upstream of its confluence with Egeria Creek with the Imowledge of the local water <br />commissioner. Since the water rights acquired with the property are not specifically decreed for <br />industrial or gravel extraction purposes, we must assume that the diversions of such water for those <br />l _ uses took place at times when there was unappropriated water available in the Egetia Creek basin, <br />Under Colorado law, a water user may appropriate and use water from natural streams so long as that <br />water is not needed to satisfy prior appropriators from the stream system. When a prior appropriator <br />needs the water, hdshe places a "call" with the State water officials who may curtail diversions firm <br />the system under water rights junior to the calling right or those without a decreed priority, as <br />~ deemed necessary by the State water officials to satisfy the calling right(s). The condition where <br />