Districts Receive Supreme Court Opinion in Dry Gulch Project Water Rights Case
Click here to read the Supreme Court Opinion
On November 2, 2009, the Colorado Supreme Court issued its opinion on the second appeal of the joint Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District and San Juan Water Conservancy District application for water rights supporting the Dry Gulch Project. This decision was the result of an appeal filed by Trout Unlimited on October 27, 2008 of the September 11, 2008 Water Division 7 District Court decree.
By its opinion, the Supreme Court upheld the 50-year planning horizon decreed by the Water Court and endorsed the Districts’ planning approach to maintain a one-year water supply margin in its storage reservoirs. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the District 7 Water Court for the taking of additional evidence on the established yields of the Districts’ adjudicated water rights, maximum expected residential and commercial growth within Archuleta County and the projected water demands to be served by the Districts.
In its opinion, the Supreme Court endorsed statewide water rights planning efforts recently coordinated by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The Supreme Court opinion also linked land use planning requirements recently enacted by the Colorado General Assembly to water court determinations of conditional water rights. In doing so, the Court introduced unprecedented legal elements into future water court determinations.
Additional trial before the Water Court will enable the Districts to extend their evidence of long-term growth patterns within Archuleta County in support of their 50-year water rights planning horizon and to demonstrate the actual reliability of water rights upon which the Districts currently depend.
Based on last year’s remand process and the added requirements for additional evidence and testimony, the Districts anticipate a relatively protracted timeline of up to a year for the court’s decision, with associated on-going legal costs. In the meantime, due to the inherent length of time to plan and permit for a complex reservoir project, and given that the first phase of the project – an expanded and upgraded Snowball Water Treatment Plant – will be required in the next four to six years, the Districts will continue planning for the project based upon continuing annual Board review of water demand projections and the need to improve aging infrastructure.
