Water

management plan is at issue



By RUTH HEIDE

ALAMOSA — District Judge O. John Kuenhold on Monday scheduled an October trial for a water case revolving around the management plan for the San Luis Valley’s first water management sub-district.

The state engineer and Rio Grande Water Conservation District board that is sponsoring the water management sub-district both approved the management plan but objectors are protesting those decisions to Judge Kuenhold.

Attorneys involved in the proceedings likened this case to the lengthy 2006 trial over rules governing new withdrawals from the confined aquifer in the Rio Grande Basin. The Colorado Supreme Court just last week upheld Kuenhold’s approval of those rules.

Kuenhold told the attorneys involved in the sub-district case that he wanted to give them time to “mull” the Supreme Court’s decision in the confined aquifer rules case to see whether that might alter their viewpoints in this case but he was not saying that it should.

The judge indicated the sub-district management plan case was of similar importance to the confined aquifer rules case and some of the attorneys involved said it might take as long to try. The confined aquifer rules trial lasted about six weeks.

Attorney Peter Ampe, representing the state’s interests, suggested the sub-district case might take 10 days, and Rio Grande Water Conservation District Attorney Ingrid Barrier said she hoped it would not last more than a week.

William Hillhouse, attorney for objector Farming Technology Corporation, disagreed with Ampe and Barrier. “Not that I am interested in a long trial, but it seems to me that this case potentially is sort of the companion case to ... the confined aquifer case. This case has the potential to be similar to the confined aquifer rules case and I would recommend a similar amount of time for trial for planning purposes. I hope it doesn’t take that long, but it could.”

Also an attorney for objectors, Tim Buchanan said he agreed with Hillhouse.

Kuenhold said he was willing to start the trial as early as late September but did not wish to begin it any later than the end of October.

He ultimately set the trial to begin on October 27 “and go until it is done.”

Kuenhold encouraged the parties to discuss the case and told them he was grateful he was dealing with a portion of the Colorado Bar that was open to discussion because that made his job easier.

Kelly Sowards asked the judge why the trial was being set so late in the year when he believed May or June would be a better time frame. He said he had been waiting for many years for this matter to be heard and was anxious to get started. Kuenhold said during the May/June time frame he will be involved in a water trial regarding the Great Sand Dunes National Park and some of the same lawyers will be involved in that case as well.

With all of the water issues before him, Judge Kuenhold remarked, “I am going to pretty much do nothing but water the rest of the year.”