Western Slope water managers are asking the federal government to help fund a water rights purchase to keep the Colorado River flowing west.
In November, the Colorado River Water Conservation District filed an application with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for $40 million to help buy the water rights associated with the Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon.
River District officials say the water rights, which are some of oldest non-consumptive rights on the Western Slope, are essential for downstream ecosystems, cities, agricultural and recreational water users. The water rights have the ability to draw 1,408 cfs of water downstream and can command the river’s flow by forcing Front Range water providers that draw from the headwaters to shut off.
But President-elect Trump has said he would claw back the unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act — $450 million of which was allocated to Upper Colorado River Basin projects — when his administration takes over in January. That means the $40 million the River District is requesting could be in jeopardy.
“We’re very hopeful that because of the bipartisan nature of this effort that any administration no matter what their political color would see great value in making sure those funds are still available for a permanent fix on the Colorado River,” said River District General Manager Andy Mueller. “A healthy, flowing river is important to Republicans, it’s important to Democrats.”
The River District, which comprises 15 counties on the Western Slope, applied for funding from what Reclamation is calling “Bucket 2, Environmental Drought Mitigation” or B2E. B2E money is for projects that provide environmental benefits and address issues caused by drought.
Alex Funk, a federal funding expert and the director of water resources and senior counsel at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said there were several B2E grant requests for projects on the Western Slope. But it is nearly impossible for the projects to be reviewed and approved between the grant deadline on Nov. 22 and inauguration day Jan. 20, Funk said. Each state plus the UCRC also has to sign off on projects, Funk said, and two months is too tight a timeline.
“There’s really only one way to prevent or ensure that funds aren’t rescinded or clawed back and that’s getting those funds obligated,” he said. “Like the contract is signed between Reclamation and the entity receiving the funds.”
Funk said he has been working with Reclamation and other reviewers on ways to streamline the approval process by ranking projects that are the highest priority — like the Shoshone water rights purchase — and announcing which will get funding, even if contracts are not yet signed.
“If there are opportunities to streamline that review and get these announcements out the door of awarded projects by Jan. 20, I think it would help create a little bit more of a buffer around those funds,” he said.
Mueller said that even if the River District does not get the B2E funding, they would find another way to fund the Shoshone purchase. The price agreed upon in 2023 between the River District and the plant’s owner Xcel Energy was $98.5 million. The River District has raised about $55 million so far from entities across the state.
“This is of such great importance to the communities in western Colorado that we will find a way to fund this whether it’s through a different partnership with the federal government, the state government or our own taxpayers,” he said. “We are confident we will have the full $99 million purchase price committed at the time we need it under our contract.”
Historical use
Included in its 600-plus-page B2E application is the River District’s argument about how the historic use of the Shoshone water rights should be measured. This is important because past use will help set a limit for future use. While changing the use of a water right is allowed by going through the water court process, enlarging it is not. The amount pulled from and returned to the river must stay the same as it historically has been.
The River District intends to add an instream flow use to benefit the environment to the current hydropower use, which will require cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the only entity allowed to hold instream flow rights. That way, when the plant is down, the instream flow right can kick in to ensure water keeps flowing west.
The River District says that records maintained by the state Division of Water Resources are based only on the water used for power production at the Shoshone plant and do not reflect the entire amount of water diverted from the river. Shoshone operators release some sediment-laden water from a tunnel back to the river in several spots before it reaches the turbines to protect the infrastructure from excessive wear. But this water, which may be released for several weeks at a time and add up to several hundred cfs, according to the River District, isn’t included in the records of water used for power production.
A better estimate of historic use, the River District says, should be based on flows at the Dotsero gauge upstream of the plant’s diversion from the river, a calculation they call the “administrative flow.” There is no measuring device at the Shoshone diversion.
“The administrative flow includes all water necessary to operate the plant to generate electricity including water released from the tunnel via the adits for sediment sluicing…” the application reads. “Consequently, the administrative flow is the best representation of the actual historical use of the Shoshone water rights … .”
To ensure the water right isn’t expanded when it’s changed, a court decree will also impose a volumetric limit by figuring out the average use over a certain period of time. The River District’s application says the study period that most accurately reflects historical use is from 1975 to 2003. The most recent two decades, which include extended power plant outages due to natural hazards like rockfall, wildfires, mudslides and ice jams, are not included.
“That 29-year period we’re looking at has dry, average and wet years and it is reflective of the vast majority of time that that water right has been operated,” Mueller said. “We believe it’s accurate. There’s certainly nothing in law or precedent in court that says you have to pick or include the most recent 10 or 20 years.”
River District numbers show for the period between 1975 and 2003, the plant was down for a total of 89 days and an annual average of 3 days. That number increased to 1,493 days of full outage from 2004 to 2022, or an average of 77 days a year. Division of Water Resources records show the Shoshone plant was not operating for nearly all of 2023 and more than half of 2024 due to rockfall and maintenance.
“That number climbs significantly with all the geo hazards after 2003,” Mueller said. “We believe that the period we are proposing is in fact much more reflective of the actual historic use.”
In its application the River District also revised downward its estimate of how much water Shoshone pulls westward each year, which it had originally put at about 1 million acre-feet. That number is how much a year-round call for the entire 1,408 cfs water right would produce. But because this entire amount has not always been available, the River District now puts the average annual Shoshone yield at 844,644 acre-feet.
It remains to be seen what Front Range water providers think of the River District’s analysis. Northern Water Conservancy District, which delivers water to the Northern Front Range, has questioned the River District’s plan for purchasing the water rights. Mueller said the River District has shared their numbers for historic use with members of the Front Range Water Council, which includes Northern, Denver Water, Pueblo Water, Aurora Water and Colorado Springs Utilities.
Spokespeople for Northern and Denver Water declined to comment on the River District’s historic use analysis to Aspen Journalism.
This story ran in the Dec. 5 edition of The Aspen Times and the Dec. 9 edition of Grand Junction Sentinel.