MEMORANDUM

TO:

Mayor and City Council

FROM:

Dave Hornbacher, Director Utilities and Environmental Initiatives
Margaret Medellin, Utilities Portfolio Manager

THRU:

Scott Miller, Director of Public Works;
Jim True, City Attorney;
Debbie Quinn, Assistant City Attorney

DATE OF MEMO: September 28, 2016
MEETING DATE: October 10, 2016
RE: Resolution 141, Series 2016 - Conditional Water Rights (Maroon Creek Reservoir and
Castle Creek Reservoir)

REQUEST OF COUNCIL: Council is requested to approve Resolution 141, series 2016,
which provides direction to staff regarding a water court application that must be filed on or
before October 31, 2016, in order to maintain its conditional storage rights for the Castle Creek
Reservoir and the Maroon Creek Reservoir for a six-year period.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION: Since the City first obtained decrees for these conditional
water rights in 1971, the Council has maintained these rights by returning to water court at
required intervals to demonstrate diligence in the development of these rights. The current
diligence period ends October 31, 2016. Prior to filing an application for the 2016 cycle, Council
directed staff at its May 9, 2016 meeting to enter into a public process with the intent of engaging
the public and stakeholders regarding their questions, concerns, and support for maintaining
these rights, as well as soliciting ideas for consideration in ensuring the City can provide a legal,
reliable, and viable water supply into the future. Council held two work sessions to further
deliberate over the City’s conditional water rights. At its September 27, 2016 Work Session,
Council directed staff to prepare a Resolution for vote at its Regular October 10, 2016 Council
Meeting.
BACKGROUND: A conditional water right is a place holder in Colorado’s priority system for
water rights, and allows project planning and development to take place with the assurance that a
water right exists for the project. It is not a proposal to actually build the reservoirs at this
time. If the City fails to submit required documents to the Court, then it will relinquish these
rights. If at a later date, the City decides to pursue the development of storage on either Castle or
Maroon Creek, it will need to re-initiate a water court proceeding for new rights. There are no
guarantees that the City will be successful in obtaining new storage rights, and even if it is, the

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 priority date of these new rights will be junior to the conditional storage rights the City now
holds.
With its long history of commitment to protection of the environment, in 2005, the City adopted
the Canary Initiative recognizing the significant threat that global warming poses to our valley,
its quality of life and to the global community. Since that time, the City established the Canary
Action Plan in 2007, set emission reduction goals, monitors and reports on Aspen’s carbon
emissions, has initiated a sustainability dash board, and is currently working on Energy
Benchmarking (Council Goal # 8), as well as other programs. This monitoring, data research and
reporting affirm that the temperatures in Aspen continue to increase, and in fact there are 23
more frost free days in Aspen than there were in 1980. These warmer days demonstrate that
local snowpack, the primary source of the City’s water supply, is decreasing.
In 2016, City Staff completed a Source Water Protection Plan and a Water Supply Availability
Report (adopted via Resolution 81, series of 2016). The Availability Report projects the
community water requirements and available supply 50 years into the future. The two variables
used in these projections are climate and population.
In the summer of 2016, the City initiated a public process to solicit feedback on its upcoming
diligence filing for conditional water storage rights on Castle Creek and Maroon Creek. The
independent services of Common Ground Environmental Consulting, LLC were retained to
provide an unbiased facilitation of these meetings.
Staff prepared a two-step process to provide information to Council to assist in its decision
making.
• Step One: Work Session on 9/20/2016 for staff and consultant presentation and to request
additional data, and hear public comment.
• Step Two: Work Session on 9/27/2016 to review additional data and arrive at a decision.
DISCUSSION: Typically, filing the required diligence applications for these conditional water
rights is a task that staff has been directed to undertake as a part of its on-going mission to
provide a legal, safe and reliable water supply. In 2016, the City’s heightened efforts related to
water planning focused attention on future water needs and future supplies, including these longheld reservoir storage rights. In its ongoing efforts to encourage community participation and
transparency, Council directed staff to initiate a public process in the very complex analysis
required to respond to climate change and to plan for an unknown future. Staff is heartened by
the response of the community to its water supply planning efforts. The support and involvement
of the community helps to ensure that Aspen’s future water needs will be met in a well-planned
and environmentally conscious manner. The public process reaffirmed that our community holds
existing wilderness and other environmental values in high regard. In addition to local input,
these conditional water rights received attention from outside groups, such as the Washington
D.C. based American Rivers advocacy group.

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 DIRECTION BY COUNCIL: After careful and thoughtful deliberation, conversations with the
public and stakeholders, and review of currently available water supply and demand projections,
at the September 27, 2016 work session Council determined that it is in the best interest of the
current and future citizens of the City to continue its filing of due diligence for its conditional
water rights on the Maroon and Castle Creeks.
By adoption of Resolution 141, Series 2016, the City Council of the City of Aspen hereby directs
staff to:
1. File and pursue an application for finding of reasonable diligence in the development
of the Castle and Maroon Creek conditional water rights on or before October 31,
2016.
2. Continue development and implementation of the City’s integrated water supply
system, including Water Conservation Measures (including, but not limited to, rate
revisions and new landscape ordinance); the Reuse Project, and other current plans for
development of water supplies, as well as further refinement of climate change
impacts on supply and demand patterns.
3. Initiate a collaborative process to evaluate existing and identify new alternatives and
any other necessary actions to fill the currently projected and updated anticipated
water supply and demand gap.
4. Enhance and increase the City’s efforts to investigate alternative locations and sizing
requirements of the Maroon Creek Reservoir and/or Castle Creek Reservoir, and to
report its findings back to City Council for further consideration and action as
appropriate.
The 9/20/16 draft resolution was updated to incorporate minor edits and Council comments from
the September 29, 2016 work session. The final Resolution 141, Series 2016 for Council
approval is Attachment C to this memo.
FINANCIAL/BUDGET IMPACTS: Costs to file the diligence application are already
included in the 2016 budget. Additional costs will be incurred for staff to follow Council
direction to 1) Initiate a collaborative process to identify innovative strategies for increasing
system resiliency, 2) Enhance and increase efforts to refine storage requirements. As the specific
actions and estimated costs are identified, staff will request of Council the applicable budget
authority.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS: There are no environmental impacts associated with filing
the diligence application. Prior to constructing the reservoirs, careful and thorough environmental
studies will be required as a part of the approval process, including evaluation of alternatives.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Staff recommends that Council adopt Resolution 141, Series of
2016 (Attachment B) at the 1st regular Council meeting in October and direct staff and its legal
counsel to submit appropriate documentation to the Court to retain the City’s conditional water
rights.

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 CITY MANAGER COMMENTS:

ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment A—Memo 9/20/2016
Attachment B—Memo 9/27/2016
Attachment C – Resolution 141, Series of 2016

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