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
Adriana Alfaro, Water Resources Program 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 and Miller Groundwater Engineering 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 five active cases where we are the applicant and three pending cases where we will be the applicant. Two of the cases are related to Castle Rock’s future water rights along the lower South Platte River at Fremont Butte Reservoir. Castle Rock is partnering with Parker Water & Sanitation District and Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District on the Platte Valley Water Partnership (PVWP) Project. Two of the applications are for changing the place of use for senior water rights (Deer Creek and Meadow Ditch) that the Town recently acquired. Finally, one application is for proving that Castle Rock Water conducted its proper diligence on conditional renewable water rights associated with the Heckendorf wells. There is one active case in which the Town is an intervenor and another that we are a plaintiff. There are twelve cases that the Town is or was opposing that could have a negative impact (i.e. injure) our water rights. These cases are summarized in Attachment A with additional details in the following discussion.
To date in 2024, Castle Rock Water has spent $594,306 of our budgeted $891,000 on costs related to water court cases of which $39,114 was spent on our Box Elder case.
Budget Impact
In the annual budgeting process, Castle Rock Water budgets money for Legal Services related to Water Court cases, other water resource legal matters, and Intergovernmental Agreement negotiations. Castle Rock Water also budgets money for water resources consulting services related to support of Water Court cases and the Town’s water rights, water resources planning and evaluation, preparation of technical memos and engineering reports, water rights accounting, and other as-directed matters. To date in 2024, Castle Rock Water has spent $594,306 of our budgeted $891,000 on costs related to water court cases of which $39,114 was spent on our Box Elder case. Legal services cost for the Town to date have been $322,506 while engineering services have cost $241,800.
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