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Mr. Richard T. Raines <br />January 28, 2009 <br />Replacement <br />Page 3 <br />The source of replacement water for this combined plan will be from 5.75 Taylor and Gill Ditch <br />shares. The shares will be diverted into a recharge pit located on the Home Office site. The <br />evaporation losses from the recharge pond during this approval period are estimated at 2.58 acre- <br />feet (Table 1). In 2006, 2007 and 2008 the 5.75 Taylor and Gill Ditch shares were diverted into the <br />recharge pond for lagged replacement water. The 5.75 shares will be diverted in the recharge pond <br />again in 2009 to provide replacement water for this combined plan. The 5.75 shares were historically <br />used to irrigate 104.5 acres of pasture grass, all of which have been taken out of production. The <br />historic consumptive use of the 5.75 shares was determined to be 122.8 acre-feet (includes <br />consumptive use and return flows). The 5.75 shares will be diverted into the recharge pit each <br />irrigation season. The return flow obligations from the Taylor and Gill Ditch will be maintained by the <br />recharge plan. <br />The attached Table 3 shows the farm headgate delivery of 5.75 Taylor and Gill Ditch shares. <br />Lafarge plans to divert the full farm headgate delivery of 240.31 acre-feet into the recharge site each <br />year (Table 3). A total of 98.8 acre-feet were diverted into the recharge site between May 4 and <br />October 4, 2008. Because of the small volume of recharge in 2008, Lafarge had a shortfall of 48.54 <br />acre-feet from November 2007 through September 2008. A lease of 22.05 acre-feet (including 7.8 <br />percent transit losses) from the Tri-Districts made additional replacements during the 2008 water <br />year. A copy of the Tri-District lease was provided to this office on December 6, 2007. In addition to <br />the Tri-District lease Lafarge secured a lease with the City of Fort Collins. The Fort Collins lease is for <br />48.86 acre-feet however only 30.28 acre-feet (including 7.8 percent transit losses) were used for this <br />plan and the remaining 18.58 were used to cover the shortfall at the Middle Poudre sites. A copy of <br />the water lease with the City of Fort Collins was submitted to this office with this plan request. <br />Lafarge will divert the full farm headgate delivery of the 5.75 Taylor and Gill Ditch shares <br />starting in April 2009. Accordingly, the monthly timing of 240.32 acre-feet (full farm headgate delivery <br />of the 5.75 shares) was used in the recharge model to determine the recharge accretion credits for <br />2009. The lagged accretions to the Cache la Poudre River are estimated to total 189.46 acre-feet for <br />this approval period (includes carry over from recharge in previous years). <br />During the Water Year 2009, a lease from the Tri-Districts will make additional replacements <br />for the months with insufficient recharge credits. The total amount of water required (including 7.8 <br />percent transit losses) is 28.67 acre-feet. A copy of the lease with the Tri-Districts was provided to <br />this office on December 17, 2008 and is attached to this letter. <br />A monthly breakdown of the stream depletions from the mining operation as well as the <br />replacements made by lagged timing of the historic consumptive use credit is shown in the attached <br />Table 1. <br />I hereby approve this substitute water supply plan, in accordance with Section 37-90-137(11), <br />C.R.S., subject to the following conditions: <br />Conditions of Approval <br />1. This plan is approved with the effective date of November 1, 2008 and shall be valid through <br />October 31, 2009 unless otherwise revoked or modified. If this plan will not be made absolute by a <br />water court action by the plan's expiration date, a renewal request must be submitted to this office <br />with the statutory fee (currently $257 for each mining site) no later than September'15, 2009.