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The Republican River Water Conservation District is an independent entity that is entirely self-governed. The Colorado State Legislature created the District in 2004 to assure local involvement in the State’s efforts to comply with the Republican River Compact between Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. The fifteen members of the Board of Directors are residents of the basin appointed by the Commissioners of local counties, Boards of ground water management districts, and the Colorado Ground Water Commission.
The District promotes conservation through voluntary participation. By utilizing federal programs, the District has brought in millions of federal dollars to offer financial incentives to producers who voluntarily retire water rights to reduce consumptive use to the stream flows. These water retirements reinforce the District’s efforts to conserve the Ogallala Aquifer for future generations.
Current focus toward compact compliance is through a $71,000,000 locally funded pipeline project. The water source for the pipeline comes from existing irrigation wells with pumping limited to historic use. Projected completion of the compact compliance pipeline is in 2011.
| Posted - Friday, July 09, 2010
Republican River Water Conservation District
Quarterly Board Meeting
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 10:00 AM
Wray United Methodist Church
500 Blake Street
Wray, Colorado
Notice & Agenda to be posted in the future. |
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 | Pipeline Arbitration Process
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Posted 8-17-2010
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES
Office of the State Engineer
1313 Sherman Street, Suite 818 • Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303‐866‐3581 • Fax: 303‐866‐3589
www.water.state.co.us
NEWS RELEASE
August 16, 2010
Contact: Theo Stein, DNR, 720.448.5567
Decisions on Republican River Pipeline, Damages, Rest with Arbiter
DENVER, Colo. – The Republican River Compact Administration will pass another year without a final accounting of water use by each of the States. This will be the fourth year the compact accounting remains unapproved by the Administration. Information needed to complete the 2009 accounting was not received until early August leaving insufficient time for final processing. The three States did agree to minor changes in the groundwater model and in the accounting procedures at the group’s annual meeting on August 12 in Burlington. These changes will help resolve some accounting problems and will be implemented for 2009 forward. However, the State’s could not agree on the implementation of those changes to previous year’s unapproved compact accounting leaving those issues for further investigation.
Meanwhile, the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas await an arbiter’s ruling on Colorado’s proposal to build a pipeline to transport groundwater from a well field near Wray to the North Fork of the Republican River near the Nebraska line. Testimony about the proposed Compact Compliance Pipeline consumed two days of a threeday non-binding arbitration hearing in Kansas City, Kan. in mid-July. The construction of a new pipeline to deliver water in satisfaction of Colorado’s compact obligations is specifically identified as a potential solution to compliance issues by the 2002. Final Settlement Stipulation that settled the previous lawsuit by Kansas against Colorado and Nebraska. However, the settlement also requires that all three states approve the details of the project, including the credit Colorado will receive for water deliveries.
Nebraska has agreed to Colorado’s proposal, but Kansas has not.
Also at issue during the July arbitration hearing was the method of accounting for credit for a year in which a State pays damages for past Compact violations. That issue was heard July 14. Colorado supported Nebraska in this portion of the arbitration.
Arbiter Martha Pagel is due to deliver her decision by Sept. 30.
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