| 4/14/2006 7:14:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Water board agrees to RICD
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
The Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District directors voted unanimously Thursday to approve a memorandum of understanding in connection with the Chaffee County application for a recreational in channel diversion water right.
Of 12 entities involved in the agreement, only the water district and Colorado Springs Utilities hadn’t yet agreed to it.
Both agreed Thursday, paving the way for an unopposed run through water court.
“We are real pleased,” Chaffee County Commissioner Jerry Mallett told The Mountain Mail after the meeting. “We did a lot of work. (UAWCD water attorney) Julianne (Woldridge) did a good job.”
The water right will ensure as much as 1,800 cubic feet of water per second flows through boating parks in Salida and Buena Vista during the height of whitewater season.
The agreement has been the subject of months of negotiations and had been considered by the district board of directors since January.
Woldridge negotiated on behalf of Upper Ark directors up until Thursday morning. Approval was conditional upon Woldridge reaching final agreement with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District related to evaporation from Pueblo Reservoir.
The agreement focuses not so much on the decree in the RICD, but on how parties will relate to the voluntary flow program which provided adequate flow for recreation and fish spawning for 15 years.
Woldridge negotiated language into the agreement allowing the district to maintain its ability to operate exchanges in a way that detracts from flow program flows when absolutely necessary to save water or meet its commitments.
It can also manage future water rights in the same way.
Chaffee County agreed to yield its RICD decree to future exchanges by some entities in the agreement. The district retained the right to object to these future exchange cases, some of which have already been filed.
Woldridge assured directors the agreement protects the ability of the district to manage its water.
“We have been banging our heads against the wall trying to get this done,” Woldridge told the board. “I do believe we have reached a point in the negotiations where staff would recommend this.”
The recreational diversion application caused everyone who owns and moves water in the river to reevaluate their participation in the flow program, Frank McNulty of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said.
The department administers the program. That, in part, made the memorandum of understanding necessary.
“It was our concern it would fall apart,” McNulty told The Mail Wednesday. “When Chaffee County filed the RICD, we were very concerned about maintaining the flow program to where it became one of our top priorities.”
Chaffee County water attorney Steve Bushong said in an interview Tuesday, the recreational diversion strengthens the flow program by making it a five-year agreement instead of a year-to-year agreement.
Rob White of Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area agreed.
“Hopefully it will just be a further strengthening and solidification of the flow program,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
In addition to the 12-party agreement, the county has seven separate agreements with objectors in the case. Mallett praised Bushong and his associates for successfully negotiating with all the objecting entities.
“I can’t say enough about those guys,” Mallett said. “They did an amazing job of legal work and really worked to get the interveners on the same page.”
On another topic involving a 5-3 vote, directors approved an agreement with Paul Moltz to help meet augmentation demand on Cottonwood Creek. Directors Jeff Ollinger, Pat Alderton and Bill Donley opposed.
Water district engineer Ivan Walter said the district would be close to over-committing itself without the Moltz agreement, especially if the district provides augmentation to The Reserve at Cottonwood Creek subdivision.
“When that goes forward it could put us very close to the brink of not being able to provide any additional water,” Walter said. “It’s approaching a crisis situation to me.”
Directors later conducted an executive session to receive legal advice regarding augmentation at The Reserve.
In other business, directors:
• Directed Woldridge to research and make a recommendation regarding district participation in the Fremont County election to include eastern Fremont County in the district.
District staff members drafted a brochure encouraging voters to support the inclusion, but Ollinger questioned if the district is within its rights to encourage passage of the inclusion ballot question.
“We have to be careful about spending public funds to promote this issue,” Ollinger said.
• Approved a water study cost share program.
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