State, district reach deal over Gunnison white-water course

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 23, 2005 at midnight

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A high-country water district and the state of Colorado have settled their differences over a controversial white-water kayaking course on the Gunnison River.

The settlement guarantees enough frothy water to satisfy kayakers while protecting others who use Gunnison River water.

"We're very pleased," said Cynthia Covell, the attorney representing the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District. "This is definitely a victory for recreational water users."

The case, the subject of a Colorado Supreme Court ruling last March, has garnered widespread attention in Colorado because the Gunnison River course was one of the first created under a groundbreaking 2001 law authorizing local governments to claim recreational water rights.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board, charged with managing the state's streams and administering the 2001 law, has fought several proposed white-water courses, saying that some either claim too much water in the stream, threaten the state's ability to deliver water owed to other states, or could hamper the ability of others, such as cities and farmers, to claim additional water in the future.

But communities that have sought to build white-water courses have argued successfully that this new use of water is justified and provides a secondary environmental benefit to the stream.

In the Upper Gunnison case, the water district agreed to reduce the maximum amount of water it wanted between May and September to 1,200 cubic feet per second per day, down from its original request of 1,500 cfs.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board originally had tried to limit the course to a maximum of 250 cfs, according to Ted Kowalski, who oversees the recreational water program for the water board.

But Kowalski said the board was satisfied with the settlement because the water district agreed to limit its requests for recreational water at certain times when stream flows are low and others are trying to divert water from the river.

"This is an example of how parties can come together to reach a reasonable compromise," Kowalski said.

Such conflicts between recreational and traditional water uses are becoming more common throughout the West, as population pressures strain water supplies and competition for what remains grows.

The settlement comes nine months after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the Upper Gunnison District had a legitimate right to claim recreational flows in the stream and to determine the amount of water it needed for its course.

But since that decision, the legal wrangling has continued as several other communities, including Silverthorne and Steamboat Springs, sought water for their white-water courses, too.

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