Water trial set for October



By RUTH HEIDE

ALAMOSA — Water management in the San Luis Valley will not occur without cost and complication.

The Rio Grande Water Conservation District board continues to encounter costs and complications in its attempts to assist Valley irrigators with establishing groundwater management sub-districts under the auspices of the water district.

The first of several possible water management sub-districts, generally covering the closed basin area of the Valley, is making its way through the court system. District Judge O. John Kuenhold approved the sub-district formation in 2006, a board of managers was established for the sub-district, and the state engineer and Rio Grande Water Conservation District board last year approved a management plan for the sub-district.

Several objections were filed against both the local and state approval of the plan through district and water court, respectively, and Judge Kuenhold scheduled a late October trial to address those objections. The judge has consolidated the district and water court cases for purposes of the trial.

Attorney Ingrid Barrier told the water district board during its quarterly meeting on Tuesday that Kuenhold recently handed down a ruling in the case essentially meaning that just because the cases were consolidated did not mean the trial would be a free-for-all. “Whatever you objected to is what you will be limited to in the trial,” she explained.

Barrier added that the judge also ruled that the review of this case would be based on a review of the sub-district administrative record, whether the administrative record provided a rational basis for the plan’s approval and whether or not in approving this plan the district violated the statutes that set up the sub-districts.

The state engineer’s approval of the management plan will be handled like the confined aquifer rules trial where the court will hear evidence and make a determination, Barrier explained. She said the water district and state will present evidence first about why they approved it and how it complied with the enabling legislation, but objectors will have the burden to prove why the plan is insufficient or does not comply with the statutes.

Barrier said the water district legal counsel will work with the attorney general’s office, which represents the state engineer, and other legal counsel to prepare for this case.

Attorney David Robbins said the judge’s recent orders in this case were important because they basically would prohibit objectors from coming into the trial and arguing the details of the plan itself. If the judge had allowed that, Robbins said, it would have negated all of the work the board of managers performed in arriving at the management plan. He said the judge’s order was important not only for the first sub-district but subsequent sub-districts.

“From my perspective that’s encouraging for the existing board of managers ... Their efforts will be given significant weight by the court,” Robbins said.

Barrier said those forming the Conejos sub-district are still refining numbers, “and I am hopeful we are going to have some more data for them in the next 30 days or so.”

She added, “We are moving along.”

As the sub-districts are progressing, the costs to form them are increasing. The costs associated with the first sub-district alone have run in the range of $275,000-300,000 so far, Rio Grande Water Conservation District Manager Steve Vandiver told the board on Tuesday. The trial this fall will add to those costs.

Vandiver said the water district board needs to decide how much of the costs of the first sub-district might also relate to future sub-districts and could be shared by those sub-districts, how much could be reimbursed by the first sub-district once it is financially operational and how much of the cost the water district itself needs to absorb.

“There are legal issues that are being resolved or will be that will apply to all of the sub-districts,” Vandiver said. He said some of the engineering work might also apply to more than one sub-district.

Vandiver added that the work for the first sub-district is far from over. He said the scope of work to establish the nearly 500 farm units in the sub-district would be significant. “It is a most complex process,” he said.

He identified more than $200,000 in expenses just for farm unit identification, a process that will not be completed in one field season, he said. “There’s a lot of money involved in the work that underlies the sub-district management plan,” he said.

Vandiver said the district has money available at this point to cover these costs.

District Board Member Greg Higel said the board needs to consider its entire constituents who pay taxes to fund the water district because not all of them might be willing to continue spending their tax money for specific sub-districts. Robbins said that is why the district is keeping track of these expenses so the sub-districts can pay them back. He agreed that this issue needs to be addressed, however.

The next board meeting for the first sub-district board of managers is Tuesday, June 3.