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MOSES, WITTEMYER, HARRISON AND WOODRUFF, P.C. <br />uw orvtcrs <br />MwmLaARR60M .. <br />/AMR R AWNT0011ERY <br />tDJD1HY 7.8aRt0M <br />~'l0.W71CAASPnLLJNe <br />~~ .. <br />rK11ARD I. Ml10ta11' . <br />MBRId<D. CAR79R <br />M1AnARNVI7W1 <br />tom w~uwrsrees'r, ame rao <br />eou~ati coinRnoo wror <br />7FJ.E1aDNR: POr1Wi7R <br />. iAR: MrJ uH7N; <br />ADgtfi4 CORReSIDlmFNC6TD; <br />r. a amt iwp <br />BOULDFA. (]D W~PFIIIR <br />cxua.e~ n. wadDwii <br />,tMl-I,M) <br />OODN9l1. <br />RA-aABL J. NOS}S <br />'~' 1 •'': •' 10lIN 1vIrIlMYRLL <br />March 8, 2005 <br />Paul Gesso <br />Maureen Jacoby <br />Banks and Gesso LLC <br />720 Kipling Street, Suite 117 <br />Lakewood, CO 80215 <br />Re: Water Supply forKi Mountain Gravel lhteradon_ Routt County. Colorado <br />Dear Paul and Maureen: <br />• You have asked me to address the status of water rights acquired by Angus <br />Investment LLC with the Ring Mountain gravel mining propertry and to identify the options for <br />~ obtaining a water supply for the expanded gravel operation that is the subject of a permit application <br />• pending before the State Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG). <br />Angus Investment acquurA dre King Mountain gravel property and associated water <br />tights in June 2004. The water rights acquired with that property include various decreed priorities <br />for diversion from Egeria Creek and various springs tributary to Egeria Creek or Smith Creek with <br />appropriation dates ranging from August 1889 to December 1991. The water rights ate described <br />on the bargain and sale deed attached to this letter. The older water tights are adjudicated for <br />irrigation use, while some of the more junior water rights are adjudicated for irrigation, <br />stockwatering, domestic, fire protection and fish culture, including several smell storage waterrights. <br />It is my understanding that a small gravel extraction operation bss been operating at <br />the site for a number of years, with water being diverted for dust suppression and, perhaps, some <br />small amount of gntvel washing. The water used for those purposes has been diverted from Smith <br />{_ Creek just upstream of its confluence with Egetia Creek with the knowledge 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 />. _ uses took place at times when there was unappropriated water available in the Egeria Creek basin. <br />Under Colorado law, a water user may appropriate and use water from natural strtarns so long as that <br />water is not needed to satiafyprior appropriators from the stream system. When a prior appropriator <br />needs the water, heJshe places a "call" with the State water officials who may curtail diversions from <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 />