Background:
The City of Alamosa’s water supply is provided by several municipal wells that are subject to the Rules Governing the Withdrawal of Groundwater in Water Division No. 3 (the Rio Grande Basin) and Establishing Criteria for the Beginning and End of the Irrigation Season in Water Division No. 3 for all Irrigation Water Rights (Sept. 3, 2015) as they now exist or as they may be changed in the future (“Groundwater Use Rules”). Those Rules require the City to replace injurious depletions to surface streams and to ensure the sustainability of the aquifer from which its wells withdraw water.
After many hours of research and meetings, City Council in 2015 provided direction to staff to pursue the creation of an augmentation plan for the City of Alamosa. On April 20, 2016 Council further cemented this direction by passing Resolution 2016 – 7, which declared the City’s intent to reimburse for future debt for the purpose of legal and engineering costs, acquiring rights to surface and ground water, storing such water rights, and construction of infrastructure necessary for the City's augmentation plan. In 2017 through Ordinance 4-2017 approving the lease purchase agreement and Ordinance 7-2017 amending the parameters, the City officially moved forward with the ability to purchase water resources for the purposes of creating a water augmentation plan with lease proceeds of $4.3 million.
In order to meet the requirements of the Groundwater Use Rules, the City has filed an application for approval of a plan for augmentation in the water court for Water Division 3, Case No. 2019 CW 3019. Under the terms of the Rules, on and after May 14, 2021, the City may only operate its wells pursuant to a substitute supply plan or by inclusion within the annual replacement plan of a subdistrict pending diligent pursuit of approval its plan for augmentation.
The temporary inclusion of the City’s wells in the annual replacement plan of the Water Activity Enterprise Special Improvement District No. 6 of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District (the “Subdistrict”) by contract will benefit both parties. The City is currently under a participation agreement with the Subdistrict that runs through March 31, 2022. Pursuant to that agreement, and continuing with the renewal contemplated by this extended agreement, the City will be able to operate its wells during the interim period while its augmentation case is proceeding, and the Subdistrict will be able to use the accretion credits the groundwater model calculates to result from the City’s well pumping to reduce injurious depletions the Subdistrict’s wells cause to surface streams.
Because the effect of the City’s wells is a net positive effect on the flow in Reach 2 of the Rio Grande, the Subdistrict proposes to pay the City $65,000 per water year, for a total of $130,000 for the term of the agreement (2022 and 2023 water years).
Pursuant to Art. IV, Section 21 of the Charter, intergovernmental agreements for provision of services should be enacted by adoption of an ordinance. Accordingly, this issue is presented for approval of an ordinance adopting the agreement.