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Strategic Management Plan Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District Strategic Management Plan Including Discussion of Water Management Issues Inventory of Water Resources in the District Legal, Institutional and Environmental Setting Revised September 30, 2016 Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District 210 West Spencer, Suite B Gunnison, Colorado 81230 www.ugrwcd.org - [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . 1 MISSION AND VALUES STATEMENTS . 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 5 SECTION 1. GEOGRAPHY, POPULATION, AND ECONOMY.. 10 1.1 GEOGRAPHY . 11 1.2 POPULATION . 13 1.3 ECONOMY . 14 1.3.1 Agriculture . 14 1.3.2 Water Based Recreation . 14 SECTION 2. DESCRIPTION AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE DISTRICT. 18 2.1 ORGANIZATION . 19 2.2 COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS . 20 2.3 THE BUDGET PROCESS . 22 2.4 MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE UPPER GUNNISON DISTRICT . 23 2.4.1 1975 Taylor Park Reservoir Operation and Storage Exchange Agreement . 23 2.4.2 Taylor Park Reservoir Second Fill Decree . 23 2.4.3 Opposing Transbasin Diversion - Union Park Reservoir Litigation . 23 2.4.4 2000 Aspinall Subordination Agreement . 24 2.4.5 Aspinall Unit Contract Plan for Augmentation . 24 2.4.6 Black Canyon of the Gunnison federal reserved water right settlement . 25 2.4.7 Meridian Lake Reservoir Project . 26 2.4.8 Recreational In-Channel Diversion Water Right. 27 2.4.9 Lake San Cristobal Project . 27 SECTION 3. DISCUSSION OF WATER MANAGEMENT ISSUES . 29 3.1 OUT-OF-BASIN DIVERSIONS . 30 3.2 PROTECTION AGAINST DOWNSTREAM SENIOR CALLS . 31 3.3 EXISTING USES SUBJECT TO A DOWNSTREAM SENIOR CALL . 31 3.3.1 Irrigation . 31 3.3.2 Existing Irrigated Lands Which Benefit from Undecreed Diversions . 33 i 3.3.3 Municipal Uses . 34 3.3.4 Exempt In-house Use Only Wells . 34 3.3.5 Non-exempt Domestic, Commercial, and Industrial Wells that are Protected by a Plan for Augmentation . 36 3.3.6 Non-exempt Wells not Covered by an Augmentation Plan . 36 3.3.7 Domestic Surface Water Pumps . 36 3.3.8 Diversions for Commercial and Industrial Purposes from Surface Water Sources . 36 3.4 PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY OF WATER IN INDIVIDUAL STREAM DRAINAGES . 37 3.5 EXISTING IRRIGATION USES SUBJECT TO PHYSICAL WATER SUPPLY SHORTAGES. 37 3.6 FUTURE USES SUBJECT TO PHYSICAL WATER SUPPLY SHORTAGES . 39 3.6.1 Irrigation . 39 3.6.2 Municipal Uses . 39 3.6.3 Domestic Uses . 39 3.7 WATER QUALITY . 42 3.8 WATER FOR RECREATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT. 43 3.8.1 Water for Recreation.. 43 3.8.2 Water for Environmental Purposes. 44 SECTION 4. MANAGEMENT PLAN: GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND CURRENT ACTION STEPS FOR THE . 47 4.1 Goal 1 Protect Upper Gunnison Basin water resources, and local uses of those resources, from new or expanded transmountain diversions, or other statewide plans or projects that would impinge on those water resources and uses. 48 4.2 Goal 2 Protect existing and future decreed water uses within the Upper Gunnison River Basin from . 49 4.2.1 Action Item to Accomplish Goal 2 . 50 4.2.2 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 2 . 50 4.3 Goal 3 Maintain, and where possible, improve the water supply that is physically available in individual sub-basins in the District. 50 4.3.1 Action Items to Accomplish Goal 3 . 51 4.3.2 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 3 . 51 4.4 Goal 4 Protect existing water supplies for in-channel and flatwater recreational purpose, and improve public awareness of public access concerns. 52 4.4.1 Action Items to Accomplish Goal 4 . 52 4.4.2 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 4 . 52 ii 4.5 Goal 5 Improve instrean water supplies for environmental purposes. 53 4.5.1 Action Item to Accomplish Goal 5. 53 4.5.2 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 5. 53 4.6 Goal 6 Protect water quality in a manner that is consistent with the District’s other responsibilities, including protecting and encouraging the beneficial use of water within the District. 53 4.6.1 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 6. 54 4.7 Goal 7 Pursue education of and input from constituents with the District on the value of basin water resources, including development of an outreach program promoting the District and its activities . 55 4.7.1 Action Items to Accomplish Goal 7 . 55 4.7.2 Ongoing Tasks to be Performed in Pursuit of Goal 7. 55 4.8 Goal 8 Serve as an active and collaborative leader, locally and regionally, in addressing current and future impacts of climate change . 56 4.8.1 Action Items to Accomplish Goal 8. 56 Goal 9 Annually update the Strategic management Plan during the budget process . 56 4.10 Administrative Tasks . 56 iii iv INTRODUCTION he purpose of this Strategic Management TPlan is to identify water resource issues in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, evaluate the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District’s options for addressing those issues and to describe the options selected for action. Agricultural, municipal, domestic, commercial, recreational, and environmental water needs are considered. Another objective in undertaking this planning process is to assist the Board of Directors to develop long-term direction for the District, and to identify Gunnison River measures that the Board will implement in future years. The plan is a dynamic document that the Board of Directors will review annually, and update as necessary to reflect changing conditions in the District and its water environment. In addition to providing guidance for the District Staff in executing Board policies, the plan is intended to serve as an accessible informational tool for interested parties regarding the activities of the District's Board and staff. Public comments on the plan are encouraged, particularly during the public budget process conducted by the Board in September, October and November each year. Goals have been developed by the Board based upon the District’s statutory authority, Mission Statement and Values Statements. They are intended to define the District’s course of action in meeting the identified water needs. This edition of the plan has been reorganized to reflect correlation of the District’s activities with specific goals. The goals are revised annually by the Board as part of its budget process and serve as the basis for Board’s expenditure of District revenues. 1 Revised September 30, 2016 Revised September 30, 2016 MISSION AND VALUES STATEMENTS Adopted by the Board of Directors September 28, 2015 Mission Statement To be an active leader in all issues affecting the water resources of the Upper Gunnison River Basin. This mission statement reflects the following values held by the District's Board of Directors. Values Statements The Board opposes any new transfers of water from the Gunnison River and its tributaries upstream of Blue Mesa Dam to other basins because such transfers would interfere with existing beneficial uses of water, damage economic stability, and reduce environmental quality within the District. The Board supports wise land use policies by local governments to protect the water resources of the basin. The Board regards irrigation, flood control, municipal and industrial uses, ecological needs, recreational opportunities, and aesthetic values to be important matters for the District and the public it serves and advocates achieving a balance among competing uses of water within the District to minimize conflict among them. The Board is committed to managing and funding effective monitoring, protection and restoration programs in order to maintain high water quality standards as a necessary part of a healthy economy and environment in the District. The Board accepts the preponderance of scientific evidence indicating that warmer temperatures are already having effects in the District on quantity and timing of precipitation, evaporative losses, forest health and timing of spring peak runoff, and other effects that will increase in the future; it is therefore necessary to adapt the Board’s planning assumptions to such changed conditions. 3 Revised September 30, 2016 The Board strongly supports irrigated agriculture in the District because of its economic contributions to the community and because of the cultural and social values of farming and ranching. The Board believes that the District must participate in statewide planning processes to address challenges like climate change, drought, population pressue, water shortages, and projects and programs to address those challenges; and in those statewide processes, the District must be a strong and consistent voice guarding against inequitable and unmitigated damage to Western Slope interests. The Board is aware of the close relationship between many water issues, energy issues and agriculture issues and acknowledges a responsibility to treat them in policy-making decisions and action steps as interrelated. The Board recognizes the need for collaborative efforts with partners to develop positions regarding legislation that has a nexus with water. The Board recognizes that effective water management requires attention to the health and viability of the entire watershed and the groundwater moving through the land and interacting with the surface waters. Revised September 30, 2016 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Section 1: Geography, Population, and Economy of the Upper Gunnison District. The Upper Gunnison River Water irrigated hay and pasture) in the District is Conservancy District is located in south- 66,486 acres. central Colorado in the headwaters of the Gunnison River Basin. The District includes most of Gunnison County, and a portion of Hinsdale and Saguache Counties. The District includes the headwaters of the Gunnison River, which is formed where the Taylor and East Rivers combine at Almont, approximately nine miles northeast of the City of Gunnison.
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