The Southwest Water Conservation District is the state-sanctioned local entity empowered to “protect, conserve, use and develop” the water resources across nine counties in Southwest Colorado. In that capacity, SWCD holds water rights, supports storage projects – including the Animas-La Plata Project – endeavors to protect flows for environmental health, educates the public about water issues and helps fund and participate in collaborative stakeholder processes – among them that which led to the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act. The SWCD is a vital agency charged with overseeing critical water resources in the region, and has been a crucial partner in developing and administering the water rights associated with A-LP. The convoluted and often conflicting nature of water rights makes this role a complicated one, and with a settlement agreement over just how much and what kind of water the SWCD is entitled to store within A-LP’s Ridges Basin Reservoir, a necessary clarification was reached.
The settlement resulted from a dispute between the Animas-La Plata Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Association and SWCD, over the water being stored in Ridges Basin and its intended use. The reservoir, after more than half a century of argument, was approved to store water solely for municipal and industrial purposes. SWCD holds water rights for other uses, including irrigation. It has the right – but not the infrastructure – to store that water in three hypothetical but nonexistent reservoirs: at Howardsville, north of Animas City Mountain and in Hay Gulch near Hesperus. The settlement separates SWCD’s water rights from the larger pool of rights contained in the overall project, and stipulates that SWCD’s would-be storage capacity of reservoirs at Howardsville, Animas City Mountain and Hay Gulch can be assigned to Ridges Basin – with limitations to ensure that the appropriate amount of water continues to flow downstream.
If it seems arcane, it is. But it is nonetheless important. Water is a limited resource throughout the West and Ridges Basin and the Animas-La Plata Project represent many decades or longer of negotiations over who has access to how much water for what purpose. Accordingly, the SWCD’s irrigation water should not be included in the A-LP water total. Also, downstream users were rightly concerned that SWCD’s water, particularly that used for agricultural purposes, could put their water delivery in jeopardy – at least theoretically. The settlement separates the two water rights holders – a move essential to keeping the project within its parameters, and makes SWCD’s rights junior by one day to those of the overall Animas-La Plata Project. Further, the settlement limits the amount of water SWCD can divert into the reservoir and orders it to stop should there be a shortage for any downstream users. This includes ensuring adequate flow for environmental purposes.
While the details of the settlement are many and complex, the gist of it is a helpful clarification in a lengthy and complex process by which A-LP was approved. In doing so, SWCD’s generous interpretation of its water rights was somewhat and appropriately limited – though not to a crippling degree – so as to ease concerns of downstream water rights holders and federal requirements that protect fish and wildlife. The settlement was a sound resolution of a potentially difficult problem.
