2012-12-26_HYDROLOGY - M2003091 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 12, 2010 Dear Dave: BACKGROUND Approach BBA water consultants B ISHOP-B ROGDEN ASSOCIATES, INC. Dave Bailey, Esq. Carver, Schwarz, McNab & Bailey, LLC 1600 Stout Street, Suite 1700 Denver, Colorado 80203 RURAL DITCH HISTORIC USE ANALYSIS Michael A. Sayler Christopher J. Sanchez Jeffrey A. Clark Charles E. Stanzione Ray Dunn Daniel 0. Niemela Laurel E. Stadjuhar As you requested, we have reviewed the historic use of water at the Heaton Pit property. This review included a historic use analysis of Lafarge West Inc.'s (Lafarge, formerly Western Mobile, Inc.) two shares of the Rural Ditch that have historically been used on the Heaton Pit property. The purpose of this task is to determine the historic use of the two shares of Rural Ditch water in order to assess its potential for augmentation use. These uses have been requested in Case Nos. 2001 -CW -194. The Heaton property is located in the N1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 9, Township 2 North, Range 68 West, Weld County, Colorado, as shown in Figure 1. The property historically consisted of approximately 80 acres, including about five acres of farm houses and residential area and a Eve acre parcel that was sold in 1970. The majority of the property was historically irrigated with the Rural Ditch shares; however, irrigation declined some over the years due to mining and the sale of the five acre parcel. Significant irrigation continued until 1999, when the mining operation took the land out of agricultural production. Lafarge has used these shares under various Substitute Water Supply Plans at this property since this time. The Rural Ditch diverts from Boulder Creek in Section 20, Township 2 North, Range 68 West, and was originally decreed for 22.75 cfs on June 2, 1882 with an appropriation date of May 10, 1862. The Rural Ditch was also awarded a second priority in the same adjudication for an additional 175.54 cfs with an appropriation date of March 10, 1863. In Case No. 84CW204, 115.29 cfs of the junior priority was abandoned, leaving 60.25 cfs of the junior right remaining. The Rural Ditch has a total of 50 shares and an average annual river headgate diversion rate for the 1911 through 1998 study period of 5,105 acre -feet (ac- ft). The first step in this analysis was to obtain a general background of the historic use of the water and the irrigated lands. This was accomplished by interviews with Rosie Heaton, who farmed the land with her husband from around 1950 through 1975, and with Tom Adams, whose family has farmed the property from the early 1980's through about 1999. The next step was to measure the irrigated lands on aerial