To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Matt Benak, P.E., Water Resources Manager
Lisa Bright-Unger, Water Resources Project Analyst
Title
Update: Water Court Cases [Cases located in Douglas County, Weld County and other areas near the Lower South Platte River]
Body
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Executive Summary
Acquiring, changing, using and protecting the Town’s water rights is a key component of the Town’s long-term renewable water plan as well as an important aspect of managing our groundwater rights. This requires the Town to file applications in Water Court and file oppositions where an application by another entity has the potential to injure the Town’s water rights. The Town is continuing to contract with Lyons Gaddis as our water attorneys and W.W. Wheeler Associates for water resources consulting support. The purpose of this memorandum is to update Town Council on the Town’s current Water Court cases.
The Town currently has seven active cases where we are the applicant. Three of the cases are part of our long-term renewable water plan. One of the cases is for a change in the point of quantification and one case is to change tributary (renewable) underground water rights. For the two new cases, one is for absolute water rights and the other case is for exchanges of water rights. There is one active case in which the Town is an intervenor and another that we are a plaintiff. There are nine cases that the Town is or was opposing that could injure our water rights. These cases are summarized in Attachment A with additional details in the following discussion.
To date in 2023, Castle Rock Water has spent $524,885 of our budgeted $530,000 on this work. In 2024, Castle Rock Water has budgeted $450,000 for legal and water resources consulting fees.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends continuing to file and work water court cases as the applicant, which will provide maximum benefit for use of our water rights, and file cases as an opposer where our water rights could be impacted. Where we are the applicant, the goal is to obtain stipulations from opposers as quickly as possible while being protective of the Town’s water rights. On cases we oppose, we want to stipulate as early as possible but we must make sure we can do this while protecting our rights. Staff will continue to keep Council updated regarding active Water Court cases on an annual basis.
Attachments
Attachment A: Summary of Cases