DWR_3348306

• Board or Commission: Colorado Ground Water Commission
• Document Type - Board and Commission Meetings: Meeting Document
• Document Date: 5/17/2002
• Subject: MEETING MATERIALS

Colorado Ground Water Commission
1313 Sherman Street, Room 818
Denver CO 80203

PLEASE RETURN BY JUNE 30, 2002

GWMD Survey on Administration of Rotational Acres

The ______________________________ GWMD recommends to the Ground Water Commission that the following administration be applied to future changes of water rights for rotational acres:
(Check one please)

□ Require meter administration through a third party as required for an Increase of Irrigated Acres (Rule 7.5.4);
□ Limit wells to historical use (and require third party administration) as required for an Increase of Irrigated Acres (Rule 7.5); or
□ No additional administration.

Comments ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Signed,

____________________________________ _____ _______________________
Name (please print or type) Signature

_________ ___ _
Title Date

ERNEST L. MIKITA, CHAIRMAN, Calhan; ANNE J. CASTLE, VICE-CHAIRMAN, Denver; JON B. BROWNELL, Hooper; EUGENE A. BAUERLE, Julesburg; DENNIS W. CORYELL, Burlington;
ROBERT R. LOOSE, Wiggins; LARRY CLEAVER, Grand Junction; RICHARD F. HUWA, Keenesburg; CHARLES “MAX” SMITH, Walsh

Rotational Acres Discussion.docCurrent Status of Rotational Acres:

Currently, a well owner may apply for rotational acres under Commission Rule 7.4.2 which requires some administration. The applicant signs a statement stating that they agree to the
following administration:

Installation of a totalizing flow meter
Reporting of planned irrigation at beginning of each season
Monthly meter readings by well owner, available to Commission and GWMD upon request

Currently there are approximately 36 wells approved for rotational irrigation and 6 applications for rotational acres pending. Those approved are broken down as follows:

35 of these are in the NHP
1 is located in the SHP

Of those 35 wells approved in the NHPs they are located in the following GWMDs:

Outside GWMD: 2
Plains: 16 (50% of all rotational acres)
Arikaree: 6
Frenchman: 2
Central Yuma: 4
W-Y: 1
East Cheyenne 4

Of those 6 wells with pending applications in the NHPs they are located in the following GWMDs:

Plains: 2
Frenchman: 1
W-Y: 2
East Cheyenne 1

GWMD Recommendations:

The Plains GWMD has requested that the Commission consider the following additional administration:

Limit wells to historical use as required for an Increase of Irrigated Acres (Rule 7.5).
Require meter administration through a third party as required for an Increase of Irrigated Acres (Rule 7.5.4).

The East Cheyenne GWMD has requested that the Commission consider only the following additional administration:

Require meter administration through a third party as required for an Increase of Irrigated Acres (Rule 7.5.4).

No other requests have been received by other GWMD

Potential Commission Action

For the Commission to implement a historic use limitation a rule change would be necessary.

The increased administration by a third party could be implemented under the current Rule 7.4.2, if the Commission where to direct staff via a procedure memorandum.

Staff Recommendations:

Take a poll of each of the GWMD requesting their written opinion by June 30, 2002 on the administration of rotational acres.

Based on these results, if the majority of the GWMDs are in favor of limiting wells to historic use, plan a rulemaking hearing for November 2002.

If the majority of the GWMDs are in favor of only increased meter administration; staff will draft a procedure memorandum that may be considered at the Commission Meeting in August 2002.

If the majority of the GWMDs do not favor any changes, do nothing. Individual GWMDs are still free to implement the desired changes through local GWMD rule making pursuant to 37-90-130
CRS.
ADMINISTRATION OF ROTATIONAL ACRES

Rotational Acres Discussion.doc Page 2

StaffReportMay02.doc STATE OF COLORADO
GROUND WATER COMMISSION
Division of Water Resources
Department of Natural Resources

1313 Sherman Street, Room 818
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone [phone]
FAX [phone]
Bill Owens
Governor

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director, DNR

Hal D. Simpson, P.E.
Executive Director
May 7, 2002

MEMORANDUM

TO: Hal D. Simpson, Executive Director - Ground Water Commission

FROM: Suzanne M. Sellers, Designated Basins Team

SUBJECT: Staff Activity Report for February 1, 2002 through April 30, 2002
AGENDA ITEM # 10

Various activities performed during the last quarter are briefly described below.

New and Replacement Applications

Table 1 provides a breakdown, by basin, of permitting activity for the last quarter. The following permit activities were performed:

Small capacity:

406 small-capacity well applications were received
271 small-capacity well permits were issued

Large Capacity:

57 large-capacity well or Determination of Water Right applications were received
25 large-capacity well permits or Determination of Water Rights were issued

Table 2 shows the current status of new and replacement permit applications for the large-capacity wells.

Change Applications

Table 3 provides the current status of the change applications. During the last quarter the following
change application activities occurred:

18 new applications were received;
5 change applications were approved; and
76 applications are currently in different stages of processing, including 5 in initial processing, 20 in publication, and 51 in hearing (including for 39 for Eagle Peak Farms) as shown
in Table 3.
Final Permit Activities

For this last quarter, there was final permit activity within the Northern High Plains, Upper Crow Creek and Southern High Plains.

Activity in the Northern High Plains continues with those remaining conditional permits which were previously set aside due to their complexity or lack of cooperation from well owners.
Activity continues with conditional permits within Yuma County where 22 permits have been clarified and are ready for publication. Unfortunately response continues to be slow on requests
for information, and 21 permits in Yuma County still remain unclarified. In Kit Carson County, 45 permits have been clarified and are ready for publication and work has begun to clarify
a second group of approximately 50 permits.

Work also continues on Upper Crow Creek. Second requests for information have been made through either phone calls or by mail to encourage well owners to submit the requested necessary
information to clarify the permits. As in the Northern High Plains, the response to these requests has been slow. Out of the 104 permits in the basin, only 31 have been clarified.

And finally, preparatory work continues on the Southern High Plains. Because of the experience of slow responses from well owners in the Northern High Plains, a plan has been devised
in an attempt to make well owners in the Southern High Plains, aware of the importance of the information they provide in the final permit process. Once the files of a group of permits
have been reviewed and it has been determined what information must be requested to clarify the permit, the well owners will be initially contacted by phone. The phone call is to alert
them that a request for information packet will soon be arriving in the mail and to clarify that the person contacted is the well owner. After the phone call, the request for information
will be sent giving the well owner 30 – 90 days to return the requested information. If no response from the first mailing is received, a certified letter pursuant to Section 37-90-108(4)
will be sent, again requesting the information in the first letter. However, this mailing only allows the well owner 20 days to respond, with the risk of water right cancellation for
no response. A test case for this procedure has been set up outside the management district. The permit files of approximately 140 wells have been reviewed, the letters requesting
the necessary information have been drafted and the first phone call contact process will begin as soon as the list of current phone numbers has been completed.

As indicated in previous reports, there is the problem of lack of current ownership information within many of the permit files, which delays the clarifying process. In order to facilitate
correspondence with well owners, the staff asks District Managers to encourage land owners to complete and submit change of ownership/address forms to the Commission Staff, if they
have acquired wells or moved in the last 10 years.

Objections/Hearings

Pending hearing cases are listed in the Hearing Officer's report. The Staff took part in pre-hearing conferences or otherwise spent time trying to resolve or otherwise work on the
hearing cases related to following applicants. The Bradbury and Eagle Peak Farm applications are currently in District Court.