{"id":278,"date":"2022-11-21T17:33:38","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T17:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/?page_id=278"},"modified":"2025-06-12T21:36:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T21:36:18","slug":"augmentation-plan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/augmentation-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Augmentation Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The SCWCD Augmentation Plan<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The concept of augmentation goes back to the Water Rights Determination and Administration Act of 1969. That year, the Colorado Legislature required (for the first time) that tributary groundwater irrigators (those who pump from shallow aquifers) must reduce pumping and\/or acquire senior water rights to offset out-of-priority groundwater depletions.\u00a0<\/p>

What is an augmentation plan?\u00a0<\/h2>

An augmentation plan is a legal document approved by the local water court in Colorado which determines the impacts of groundwater pumping to a nearby stream or aquifer \u2013 in our case the Rio Grande River and its unconfined aquifer. These groundwater \u201cdepletions\u201d caused by well pumping must be replaced (or augmented) by other sources of senior surface water, reservoir water, or return flows (or \u201caccretions\u201d) from recharged water, or through a reduction of irrigated acres.\u00a0<\/p>

Accretions (augmentation water sources) must be replaced to the Rio Grande River at the same time and location as well pumping depletions occur to the river. It is an elaborate accounting process which involves extensive legal and engineering analysis, negotiation with objectors in the water court case, and eventual issuance of a \u201cdecree\u201d by the water court judge. This court decree must be followed by well owners or they will be forced to cease pumping groundwater.<\/p>

Often, the result of a water court decree involves the dry up (no more irrigation) of thousands of acres of productive farmland. The economic impacts can be significant due to the loss of crops and reduced land values. On the positive side, requiring groundwater pumpers to be sustainable will prolong the useful life of an aquifer, and in the Rio Grande River Basin, will help prevent injury to the downstream states of New Mexico and Texas under the Rio Grande River Compact of 1938.<\/p>

In 2022<\/b>, Brad Grasmick and Ryan Donovan of the law firm Lawrence, Custer, Grasmick, Jones, and Donovan LLP in Johnstown, Colorado, filed a draft decree for the Sustainable Water Augmentation Group (SWAG) in Water Division Three Water Court. Engineering was provided by Hydros Consulting Inc. of Boulder. Mr. Grasmick has extensive experience with augmentation plans in the South Platte River Basin and was an integral member of the legal team which helped the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, and two of its subdistricts, obtain augmentation decrees in the Division One Water Court in Greeley. Those plans included 1,500 wells and involved over 50 objectors in the water court proceedinh. These wells can now legally pump South Platte Valley groundwater, but with significant augmentation requirements.<\/span><\/p>

In July 2023<\/b>, the SWAG augmentation plan went to trial in the Division Three Water Court in Alamosa, and was heard by Chief Judge\/Water Judge <\/span>Michael A. Gonzales.<\/span> Disappointingly, on the second day of the trial, the State Engineer threatened to void the existing augmentation plan of the Town of Del Norte – which was a primary source of augmentation water for the SWAG augmentation plan. The parties in the case agreed to reschedule the trial due to this unprecedented action, and it is now scheduled for 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

SWAG members (and now the Southern Colorado Water Conservancy District) have leased\/purchased significant properties in the San Luis Valley \u2013 Gladstone Ranch and Shadow Ranch. The <\/span>Gladstone Ranch<\/b> property has thirty-nine center pivot circles which will be dried up (no longer irrigated) to reduce groundwater pumping impacts on the Rio Grande River and the unconfined aquifer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Shadow Ranch<\/b> was acquired for its senior water rights in the Atkins Ditch, as well as the Meadow Glen Ditch and Voss Seepage Ditch. These water sources can be used in SWAG\u2019s augmentation plan to offset groundwater pumping depletions of member wells, as well as a groundwater recharge project on the property.\u00a0<\/span>The SWAG board also obtained pre-approval of a Colorado Water Conservation Board loan to reduce the purchase expense of Shadow Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Property #1<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Sustainable Water Augmentation Group, Inc. (SWAG) purchased the 574-acre <\/span>Shadow Ranch<\/b> located six miles northwest of Del Norte, Colorado. The property includes two center pivot irrigation systems, senior water rights from the Atkins Ditch, junior water rights from Meadow Glen Ditch and Voss Seepage Ditch, and one-half mile of prime river frontage along the Rio Grande River.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

This segment of the Rio Grande is a “Gold Medal” trout fishery and has hunting opportunities which include mule deer, pronghorn antelope, mallards, teal, canvas back, wood ducks, and Canadian geese. A Bureau of Land Management land parcel is adjacent to this property. Shadow Ranch is valued at over $3.2 million.<\/span><\/p>

The water rights on this land could be used as part of an augmentation plan for SCWCD member wells and will be part of an exchange with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for a water trade and public access to the Rio Grande River corridor on Shadow Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Property #2<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The <\/span>Gladstone Ranch<\/b>\u00a0property is located approximately six miles northeast of Center, Colorado, and includes over 6,000 acres of land of which most was recently irrigated and under production. In 2022, the SWAG group acquired a lease\/purchase option on the property to cease irrigation of the property to reduce groundwater pumping impacts to the Rio Grande River and its unconfined aquifer. This reduction in groundwater pumping will be a component of the SCWCD\u2019s augmentation plan to reduce depletions.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Property #3<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In 2025, the Shadow Ranch Recharge Project<\/strong> was developed to divert water from the Rio Grande River, through the Atkins Ditch. It will then be pumped upgradient through 240 feet of pipeline to the excavated recharge site. River water will be recharged when available to \u201cretime\u201d return flows to the Rio Grande River. This method of augmentation has been used extensively in the South Platte River Basin of northeast Colorado. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SCWCD Augmentation Plan The concept of augmentation goes back to the Water Rights Determination and Administration Act of 1969. That year, the Colorado Legislature required (for the first time) that tributary groundwater irrigators (those who pump from shallow aquifers) must reduce pumping and\/or acquire senior water rights to offset out-of-priority groundwater depletions.\u00a0 What is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-278","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":156,"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/278\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swagwater.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}