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Home My WebLink About951152.tiff BOARD or UlnEcrons EnNESr „GP=I. '- NORTH WELD Lu1 NTY WATER DISTRICT GnnY simrsors EnNESr ROSS ;“• I IIGI-IWAY 05 • LUCERNE, COLORADO 00040 W.M. McI(AY CIIANLES ACI-IZII�En LYLE NELSON, MGR. DU. BOX 56 • PHONE 350-3020 • January 19, 1995 RE: Water Service Dear Sirs, • This letter in in response to your inquiry regarding water service to the following described property: • 17847 Hwy 14 , Ault 1. X Water service is presently being provided to the above described property. • 2. Water service can be made available to the above described property provided all requirements of the District are -satisfied. If contracts have not been consummated with North Weld County Water District within one year from the date of this letter, this letter shall become null and void. Additional comments: Sincerely, ‘;• North Wel unty . e District • L e D. Nelson • tanager Robert Connell Acct No 80210 • • 951152 L // /5- SUPREME COURT, STATE OF COLORADO Case No. 94SA66 Appeal from the District Court, Water Division No. 1, Case Nos. 86CW401, 86CW402, 86CW403 & 87CW332 OPENING-ANSWER BRIEF OF NORTHERN COLORADO WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT, KEITH AMEN, WARREN AND VIOLA AMEN, J.W. AND BESSY HUTCHESON, AND DWAIN AND VERA YETTER CITY OF THORNTON, Applicant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee v. BIJOU IRRIGATION CO. ; BIJOU IRRIGATION DISTRICT; ANDREW BLASE & VIVIEN AKIN; BURLINGTON DITCH, LAND & RESERVOIR CO. ; CENTRAL COLORADO WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT AND ITS GROUND WATER MANAGEMENT SUBDISTRICT;. CACHE LA POUDRE WATER USERS ASSOC. ; CITY OF ARVADA; CITY OF AURORA; CITY OF BRIGHTON; CITY OF BROOMFIELD; CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, acting by and through its Board of Water Commissioners; CITY OF ENGLEWOOD; CITY OF GREELEY; CONSOLIDATED DITCHES OF DISTRICT NO. 2; COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE; HAROLD DEANE; DELTA IRRIGATION CO. ; EXCALIBUR RESOURCES CO. ; FARMERS RESERVOIR & IRRIGATION CO. ; FORT MORGAN IRRIGATION & RESERVOIR CO. ; HENRYLYN IRRIGATION DISTRICT; IRRIGATIONISTS ASSOC. ; JACKSON LAKE RESERVOIR & IRRIGATION CO. ; JACKSON DITCH CO. ; LARIMER & WELD IRRIGATION CO. ; LARIMER & WELD RESERVOIR CO. ; NEW CACHE LA POUDRE IRRIGATING CO. ; NORTH POUDRE IRRIGATION CO. ; OGILVY IRRIGATING & LAND CO. ; PAUL LIND & SONS; WANDA LEE RANKIN; RIVERSIDE IRRIGATION DISTRICT; RIVERSIDE RESERVOIR & LAND CO. ; ST. VRAIN & LEFT HAND WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT; THOMPSON WATER USERS ASSOC. ; WATER SUPPLY AND STORAGE CO. ; WESTERN SUGAR CO. ; and WINDSOR RESERVOIR CO. , Objectors-Appellees, and ALAN BERRYMAN, Division Engineer, Water Division No. 1, Appellee pursuant to C.A.R. 1(e) , and 95115 7—kik& n m C X c Attorneys At Law 1775 Sherman Street • Suite 1300 Denver, Colorado 80203 (303) 861-1963 • Fax: (303) 832-4465 Extension 124 January 17, 1995 Mr. Keith Amen 154OO Weld County Road 86 Pierce, Colorado 8O65O Warren and Viola Amen 418OO Weld County Road 31 Pierce, Colorado 8O65O J.W. and Bessie L. Hutcheson 39507 Weld County Road 37 Ault, Colorado 8O61O Dwain and Vera Yetter 43224 Weld County Road 41 Pierce, Colorado 8O65O Re: The City of Thornton v. NCWCD, et al . Case Nos. 86CW4O1, 86CW4O2, 86CW4O3, and 87CW332 Supreme Court of Colorado Case No. 94-SA-66 Ladies and Gentlemen: Enclosed for your information is a copy of the Opening- Answer Brief of Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Keith Amen, Warren and Viola Amend, J.W. and Bessy Hutcheson, and Dwain and Vera Yetter, as filed on January 3, 1995 . Please accept our apologies for not getting this out to you sooner. Please note that the Thornton reply will be due on March 31, 1995 . If you should have any questions or comments, please do nat hesitate to call. Sl' ,c�errely,, �Cl t/'tAy V, Robert V. Trout for Hobbs & Trout, P.C. Enclosure 95115 a 3/S well sought to be pumped has been included, or Thornton has made application for that well to be included, in an approved augmentation plan. 58.3.11.2 Area Limitation: The amount of land which shall be allowed to be irrigated on each farm unit using well water shall be limited to a specific acreage computed as follows: 58.3.11.2.1 Acreage Irrigated in the Future with Ground Water. The average annual historical farm water supply to the Thornton farms which were irrigated with WSSC shares, well water and other sources (the "duty of water") was approximately 2.5 acre feet per acre. The acreage which historically received water from well pumping is shown on Exhibit L as "Acreage Receiving Groundwater.' The volumetric limit on pumping for each farm as computed above shall be divided by the average annual historical farm water supply of 2.5 acre feet per acre to determine the acreage which can be irrigated with groundwater in the future. The Division Engineer shall have administrative authority to enforce this provision. 58.3.11.2.2 Record Restrictions. Within thirty days of the entry of this decree, Thornton shall record with the appropriate county clerk and recorder a document sufficient to become a part of the chain of title for each farm identified on Exhibit L giving notice of the restrictions on pumping to which the wells will be subject pursuant to this decree. 58.3.11.3 Future Change of Use of Wells. In the event that Thornton or any other owner of the wells set forth on Exhibit L hereto seek to change the place of use or type of use of the well water, the owner of the well will augment all depletions of those wells with a court approved u mentation plan. 58.4 Groundwater Levels. Upon the dry-up of Thornton farms, less irrigation water will be N applied to the surface of the land, resulting in less deep percolation of water into or recharge of the aquifer underlying those farms.Thornton shall be required to replace native and transmountain return flows to the groundwater aquifer as provided by Q 58.3.3.5 58.573.4, above, through means of the recharge program described in II 58.3.7, above. This replacement will contribute to the maintenance of historic water levels. Thornton, however, is not required to guarantee the preservation of a particular water level throughout the aquifer. Such water levels are dependent on numerous factors, many of which are beyond the control of Thornton. Thornton must replace native and transmountaln return flows to the groundwater aquifer as provided by 4s 58.3.3.5 58.3 3.4 and 58.3.7, above, and as long as it does so, it will ave fulfilled its obligation in this regard. PROPOSED DECREE 86CW40I,402,403; 87CW332 DRAFT 4:23pm, Wednesday, September 8, 1993 65 0331Decree\P•Decree.908 (redline] 951152 ylS Engineer on every operational Thornton owned well. Records of volumes pumped per year will be collected by Thornton and provided to the Division Engineer until the time that the WSSC shares are removed from agricultural use. The average annual amount of metered pumping from each well during the period following the entry of the decree through the time when the ditch shares are removed from the farm will provide a second estimate of historical pumpage by the wells associated with each farm. This estimate is referred to as the "metered estimate". 58.3.11.1.3 Well Pumping After Drv-Up. At the time ditch shares are removed from a farm, the metered estimates for the wells supplying that farm will be compared to the limiting range. The pumpage from the well or wells on that farm will thereafter be limited to the metered estimate unless it is higher or lower than the limiting range and in that event the upper or lower bound of the limiting range, as appropriate,will be the maximum allowable pumpage. The limitation on future pumpage described herein shall be applied on a 10 year moving average basis. Thornton shall provide to the Division Engineer on an annual basis an estimate of the acreage irrigated by the wells, the location of such irrigated acreage (by Y '/4 section); records of meter readings, volumes pumped per year and 10 year moving averages of volumes pumped. Further, every five years Thornton shall provide to the Division Engineer a copy of current aerial photography (by Agricultural Stabilization & Conservation Service or other photography available to the public) of each farm irrigated with the wells. In no event, however, shall a well pump in excess of its decreed or permitted volume or rate nor shall it divert a volume or at a rate to exceed the amounts provided by its augmentation plan in place at the time of this stipulation, unless additional augmentation sources are applied for in the Water Court and decreed for use by the wells. 58.3.11.1.4 Farms With Multiple Wells. Since many of the farms have more than one well, the volumetric limits shall apply on a per-farm basis to the one or more wells associated with the farm as shown on Exhibit L, but the decree,permit and augmentation limitations of the preceding paragraph shall apply on a well by well basis. 58.3.11.1.5 Tributary Wells Without Augmentation. Six of the wells identified on Exhibit L were not decreed to be nontributary wells in the 1953 "Coffin" adjudication and have not been included in any plan for augmentation approved by the State Engineer's Office. Neither Thornton, its lessees, nor its successors in interest shall be allowed to pump from these six wells after the date of this decree unless the PROPOSED DECREE 86CW401,402,403; 87CW332 DRAFT 4:23pm, Wednesday, September 8, 1993 64 0331\Decree\P-Dccree.908 [redline] 95115;— 373-- and the Laramie river basins. Through an extensive series of facilities built by WSSC (ditches, canals, tunnels, and reservoirs) , that water is delivered to the Poudre basin for the benefit of WSSC shareholders. On an average annual basis, transmountain water accounts for over 14, 000 a. f. or 47% of Thornton's pro rata interest in the LCC headgate diversions. As discussed in greater detail in section I of the Argument below, the trial court denied Thornton's reuse of future importations of foreign water and required that Thornton replicate foreign water return flows3 and ditch seepage (roughly 6, 700 a.f. ) as they historically occurred. Decree, p. 9, 1 11. 2 . 1.2 ; p. 11, 1 11.4. 1; p. 29, 1 19; p. 31, 1 21. 5; p. 39, 1 45; MOD, pp. 4-17. G The average annual amount of return flow attributable to `, 1 Thornton's proportionate ownership in WSSC and JDC water rights is approximately 10, 500 a.f. of native and foreign water. The trial court required Thornton to replace return flows varying the j requirement according to geographic location in order to account / for subdrainages within the watershed, geology, hydrology an 3 Return flows are primarily comprised of "deep percolation, " water which soaks into the ground from irrigation but passes through the crops' root zone without being consumed and travels on down to the groundwater aquifer. Once there, it becomes part of the groundwater travelling to a surface stream. 12 951152 Hello