For the first time since 1990, the three member Pine River Irrigation District board has a new member.
Shareholders formally elected Allen McCaw to replace Bob Witt at the annual meeting on Jan. 31.
McCaw, a fifth generation large landowner near the Durango-La Plata County Airport, was already seated on the board for the meeting at Bayfield High School.
Witt told shareholders he is stepping down for health reasons, especially his hearing. He introduced and then nominated McCaw as his recommended replacement. No other candidate was nominated by shareholders.
"You trust the most valuable asset you have in our hands," Witt said. "You need the best representation you can get."
He said, "When you put me on this board with two depression-era farmers, they made a horrible mistake," referring to privately owned hydropower plant at the dam that PRID operates on contract and that pays a share of revenue to PRID.
Witt was first elected to the PRID board in January 1988. According to Times archives, the planned hydropower plant was the big topic of discussion at that annual meeting. The private operator, Ptarmigan Resources, had beat out PRID on filing for the federal hydropower rights. PRID tried to buy the license from the company, but they wouldn't sell.
Jerry McCaw presented a gun scabbard for Witt's four-wheeler as a token of appreciation for his many years on the board.
PRID's other two board members are Phil Lane, elected in 1989 to replace his father Ed, and Steve Pargin, elected in 1990 to replace Rex Richmond.
Also at the Jan. 31 meeting, PRID superintendent Brian Sheffield reported that Doc's Marina is closing (they ceased operation permanently last fall), but PRID has applications from two other operators for marinas, one at Sawmill Point and one toward the north end of the reservoir.
As of Jan. 30, the reservoir held 97,879 acre feet, with in-flows of around 100 cubic feet per second and dam releases at 75 cfs, Sheffield said. "We might be releasing a little more, depending on this storm and the rest of the winter," he said.
PRID staffer Mike Canterbury added, "We are 10 feet from being full."
PRID installed a "bubbler" system in summer 2013 to keep water from freezing at the big radial gates and damaging them, allowing a lot more water to be held over the winter. The previous limit was around 74,000 AF. The reservoir is full at around 125,000 AF.
Water attorney Amy Huff reported that more than a half million comments were submitted last year on the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new guidelines of what constitute "waters of the U.S." where Corps of Engineers permits are required. By including all direct or indirect tributaries to navigable waters, it could include irrigation ditches, she said. It remains to be seen what the final rule will be.
Phil Lane commented, "The thing about these permits, the fines (for violations) are outrageous."
Water engineer Steve Harris gave an update on the draft Colorado Water Plan which came out in December 2014. The final version is due in December this year.
It's around 400 pages, he said, plus the plans from nine basin roundtable groups.
"One of the main concerns was that the plan would change the prior appropriation system. It says on the first page that it won't," Harris said. He said he's read the whole thing and hasn't found anything to the contrary.
Another big issue at nearly every state water meeting he's been to has been trans-mountain diversions (TMDs) of West Slope water to the Front Range and the effort to prevent the dry-up of hundreds of thousands of acres of ag land on the East Slope when Front Range municipal water entities buy up ag water.
The state has around 5 million people, and around 4 million of them live along the Front Range, Harris said. "The question is the next 5 million people. If we do nothing, that water will come from ag dry-up on the East Slope, hundreds of thousands of acres."
The other is the TMDs. Harris sits on the Southwest Basin Water Roundtable, which wants Front Range water entities to look at sources other than diversions from the Colorado River Basin or ag dry-up, such as developing more storage for East Slope water or seeking water from the Missouri River, he said.
But he noted efforts to expand capacity of a couple Front Range reservoirs have been in the federal permit process for 15 years. "There are sections in the (state) water plan where the state will support a project in hopes that the permit process will be shorter."
