‘West Fork Water Rights’ Report Approved by SJWCD Board
The final draft of the Wilson Water Group analysis of two water rights held by the San Juan Water Conservancy District — the West Fork Reservoir storage rights and the West Fork Canal diversion rights — was approved and accepted by the SJWCD Board of Directors on March 29, 2021.
The WWG report was commissioned to assist the Board in determining whether it makes sense for the District and its taxpayers to attempt to retain the West Fork water rights during a future diligence filing.
A previous Board of Directors agreed to relocate the water rights to a new location. The rights currently apply to a location in the middle of the Bootjack Ranch in Mineral County. That previous agreement requires the current SJWCD Board to take action by June 21, 2021 if it wishes to move the rights to a different location.
Other alternatives include sale of the water rights, or abandonment.
You can download the WWG final report here.
The conclusions from the report:
The West Fork Canal direct flow water right is decreed for irrigation, municipal, and industrial uses only and not for storage. WWG did not identify a projected demand for the decreed direct flow use of this water right.
The stipulations attached to the West Fork storage right is not as limiting as the stipulations attached the Dry Gulch storage rights. However, the terms and conditions that may be imposed during diligence and change of location proceedings are unknown.
If the location of the West Fork storage right is moved to the Dry Gulch Reservoir site as an alternate point of storage, the District may be required to measure water available at the original West Fork reservoir location. This could involve funding and maintaining a streamflow gauge or a diversion and return structure.
The West Fork Storage rights priority stipulated to upstream junior rights provides limited benefit compared to the Dry Gulch storage right priorities (1967/2004) or to a new Junior storage right priority.
Current Dry Gulch water rights may be sufficient to cover future demands; however, they are not decreed to release for in‐channel environmental and recreational demands.
Current information indicates projected demands for municipal, environmental, recreational, and irrigation uses through 2050 could be met most years with an 11,000 acre‐feet reservoir at the Dry Gulch reservoir site.
Current Dry Gulch water rights may be sufficient to cover future demands; however, they are not decreed to release for in‐channel environmental and recreational demands.
WWG did not analyze the ability for PAWSD to meet their future demands with existing sources. Applying for a new junior water right in the future would provide the District time to work with PAWSD to refine future municipal demands and potential storage requirements.
Environmental flow stipulations for Dry Gulch water rights affect the ability to fill the reservoir in dryer years; however, the reservoir might also be used to release to environmental demands.
The existing environmental flow stipulations appear somewhat arbitrary (double the instream flow); there may be an opportunity for the District to work with stakeholders to develop technically based environmental and recreation flows that benefit both the river and improve project operations for municipal use.
Applying for a new junior water right for the Dry Gulch reservoir location would not impact legal water availability compared to the current District’s storage rights, and a new filing could include in‐channel environmental and recreational flows as a decreed use.
Applying for a new junior water right in the future would provide the District time to work with CPW and CWCB to determine if increased environmental flows are justified and to develop agreements for reservoir use.