The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) gave the initial green light to an innovative instream flow project at its January 2010 board meeting. The Breem Ditch transaction will add much-needed streamflow to sections of Washington Gulch and the Slate River near the Town of Crested Butte. The collaborative project—consisting of Skyland Metropolitan District; Verzuh Ranch, Inc., a local development company owned by Billy Joe Lacy and Dan Dow; the CWCB; and the Colorado Water Trust (CWT)—will mean more water for local rivers and Gunnison County residents.
“The project includes diverse parties who figured out that we shared a common goal of bringing increased streamflow to sections of fantastic Colorado streams in desperate need of more water,” said Amy Beatie, Executive Director of the CWT. “Had Skyland and Dan and Bill not welcomed the Water Trust to the table to explore creative possibilities, and had Skyland not been willing to coordinate the development if its water supply with CWT, this excellent project would never have gotten off the ground. It was quite an experience watching the parties put on creative hats to find a good solution, and it’s even more exciting now that it’s closer than ever to completion.”
Due to irrigation diversions into the Breem Ditch, and despite sometimes water-plentiful summers, the Gulch would run completely dry by the middle of July. The Slate River also would run quite low. The Breem Ditch diversions starved the Gulch and the nearby wetlands through which the Town of Crested Butte’s Recreation Path meanders. The proposed transaction will allow Washington Gulch to flow year-round, even during dry summers, and will help fix flow shortages to the Slate River. In fact, a section of the Slate River that runs through some of Crested Butte’s Open Space land, which includes public fishing access, could see up to a 5.45 c.f.s. flow increase during the summer months – an amount similar to calf-deep water in a small order stream. The transaction was put together by the CWT, a statewide nonprofit that works to improve the state’s streamflows through voluntary, market-based transactions.
The arrangement, years in the making and formally approved by the CWCB today, allows the CWCB to use the water decreed to the Breem Ditch in the state’s Instream Flow Program for Washington Gulch and about two miles of the Slate River below the confluence with Washington Gulch. After use in the river, the water will be used in Skyland Metropolitan District’s system, which from 2002 to 2004 – Colorado’s most severe recent drought period – was in danger of impairment.
“We’re very pleased with the arrangement,” said Woody Sherwood, vice-chairman of Skyland’s Board of Directors. “Today is the beginning of a long-term relationship with the CWCB to improve local streamflows and our own water supply. Everybody benefits,” he added.
Speaking for the CWCB, Linda Bassi, chief of the CWCB’s Stream and Lake Protections Section added: “We are extremely grateful for the opportunity that Skyland and Bill and Dan allowed us to pursue. In the end, we think that this can serve as the poster-child for thoughtful water transfers because of the streamflow component.”