Diligence & New Water Right Application
Sinbad Valley, Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colorado
Western Water & Land compiled the technical information required for two diligence applications and one new water right application for a large ranch spanning the boundary between Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colorado. One of the diligence applications involved two horizontal wells constructed in a ridge above the ranch. The wells are decreed for irrigation, domestic, and power generation. The second diligence application involved a number of springs and reservoirs at the ranch, with decreed uses including irrigation, piscatorial, recreation, and stock watering. The new water right application was for a spring supplying water for stock in an otherwise dry portion of the ranch. As part of the work, Western Water & Land conducted two detailed site inspections to ensure that all available water sources at the ranch were accounted for and locations for the decreed structures were accurate. A Statement of Opposition was filed in one of the diligence cases, raising concerns regarding the tributary status of groundwater flowing from the horizontal wells. The opposer’s consultant claimed that groundwater at the wells was tributary to a stream on which the opposer held water rights and that withdrawals from the aquifer at the wells would cause injury to those rights. Western Water & Land performed a detailed study of groundwater occurrence and flow in the vicinity of the wells and successfully demonstrated that groundwater flowing from the wells in fact was not tributary to the nearby stream in question. As a result, the opposition was dropped and the court issued the diligence decree noting that the Applicant had proven the tributary status of the water right. The court also issued decrees for the other diligence case and the new water right.
Sinbad Valley, Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colorado
Western Water & Land compiled the technical information required for two diligence applications and one new water right application for a large ranch spanning the boundary between Mesa and Montrose Counties, Colorado. One of the diligence applications involved two horizontal wells constructed in a ridge above the ranch. The wells are decreed for irrigation, domestic, and power generation. The second diligence application involved a number of springs and reservoirs at the ranch, with decreed uses including irrigation, piscatorial, recreation, and stock watering. The new water right application was for a spring supplying water for stock in an otherwise dry portion of the ranch. As part of the work, Western Water & Land conducted two detailed site inspections to ensure that all available water sources at the ranch were accounted for and locations for the decreed structures were accurate. A Statement of Opposition was filed in one of the diligence cases, raising concerns regarding the tributary status of groundwater flowing from the horizontal wells. The opposer’s consultant claimed that groundwater at the wells was tributary to a stream on which the opposer held water rights and that withdrawals from the aquifer at the wells would cause injury to those rights. Western Water & Land performed a detailed study of groundwater occurrence and flow in the vicinity of the wells and successfully demonstrated that groundwater flowing from the wells in fact was not tributary to the nearby stream in question. As a result, the opposition was dropped and the court issued the diligence decree noting that the Applicant had proven the tributary status of the water right. The court also issued decrees for the other diligence case and the new water right.