With a unanimous decision during a regular board meeting on February 14th, Ute Water's Board of Directors pledged a financial contribution of two million dollars to the Colorado River District in securing the Shoshone water rights. The largest domestic water provider between Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah, is committing funding for the historic and monumental acquisition of the state’s largest and most senior non-consumptive water right on the Colorado River. This landmark purchase aims to finalize the Shoshone permanence efforts that Ute Water has been committed to for over 20 years.
Photo: 1905 Stereograph “Canyon of the Grand River (Colorado River), near Glenwood Springs, Colorado,” White & Co.
What are the Shoshone water rights?
The senior Shoshone water right was established in 1902, before the Shoshone Hydroelectric Facility was constructed in the Glenwood Canyon east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The rights have commanded supreme control over the Colorado River for over a century to ensure the hydroelectric plant’s "first in time, first in right" allocation to run water through the power-generating turbines and back into the river below. The Colorado River water that exits the Xcel Energy-owned facility after power generation flows downstream has contributed to the life force of the Grand Valley for generations.
On December 19th, 2023, Xcel Energy signed a momentous Purchase Sale Agreement (PSA) with the Colorado River District, which will transfer the senior water rights to the multi-county conservation organization for 98.5 million dollars. The sale will provide a permanent solution to an agreement made in 2016--the Shoshone Outage Protocol (SHOP), a standing acknowledgment between major water users across the state to operate the Shoshone Call, thereby sending historic flows westerly even when the hydroelectric facility is not in operation. The facility does not have any plans to close to date, but isolated outages related to the age of infrastructure and a host of natural disasters that the Glenwood Canyon has inflicted, from rockslides to wildfires, have tested the SHOP agreement.
According to the Colorado Division of Water Resources, water rights can be abandoned or dissolved when not put to beneficial use. When called, rights as influential as Shoshone can command as much as 86,000 acre-feet of westerly flow in a dry year.
With the Shoshone water rights purchase, the Colorado River District, in collaboration with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, aim to arrange an instream flow agreement to secure the historic flows to the Western Slope.
Photo: 1950 “Public Service Dam” (Shoshone Dam) in Colorado River near Glenwood Springs Colorado.
Why are the Shoshone Water Rights important to Ute Water and its 90,000 customers?
With strategically redundant infrastructure and source waters, Ute Water can overcome the difficulties of dry years by activating secondary water sources from Ruedi Reservoir and the Colorado River to supplement primary Plateau Creek water sources. Additional flows in the Colorado River from the Shoshone call improve water quality characteristics, such as the dilution of salinity levels. Irrigation entities also rely on Colorado River flows that fill canals and allow for robust and bountiful agriculture. Continued flows from Shoshone aid in maintaining the natural heritage of four endangered and threatened fish species that utilize the 15-mile reach (Bonytail, Colorado Pikeminnow, Humpback Chub, and Razorback Sucker), and persist alongside continued water security and sustainability for the Grand Valley community.
On a statewide level, maintaining higher recreational flows fuels the river recreation economy in Colorado, where the Colorado River basin on the Western Slope contributes around four billion dollars annually to the state's GDP, according to the Colorado River District. The flows from Shoshone that reach Lake Powell also contribute to Colorado River interstate compact compliance.
How will the purchase be funded?
The Colorado River District presented the plan and progress for funding the Shoshone permanency effort during Ute Water’s regular board meeting on February 14th. Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller outlined two major milestones that have gotten the project’s funding off the ground.
On December 19th, 2023, in conjunction with signing the PSA with Xcel Energy, the Colorado River District's 15-county board unanimously approved a 20-million-dollar contribution.
Then on January 29th, during the regular Colorado Water Conservation Board meeting, a hearing took place regarding Shoshone water rights funding. Ute Water staff testified in support of the Shoshone permanency effort at the hearing, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board unanimously backed the effort with an additional 20 million dollars in state funds through the Non-Reimbursable Investment Grant.
Moving forward, the Colorado River District hopes to leverage at least ten million dollars committed by various water users and providers of the Western Slope who will continue to benefit from the flows of Shoshone. Once local funds are secured alongside Ute Water’s two-million-dollar contribution, the Colorado River District plans to request the remaining balance of 49 million dollars from the Bureau of Reclamation's Inflation Reduction Act funding sources, which is slated to support drought mitigation funding projects like these efforts on Shoshone permanency.
What’s next?
More information about the effort can be found through the Shoshone Water Right Preservation Coalition and Campaign, of which Ute Water is a member, at keepshoshoneflowing.org. The Colorado River District plans to meet the four closing conditions of the PSA by December 31st, 2027. These closing conditions are as follows:
Negotiation of an instream flow agreement with the Colorado Water Conservation Board
A change of water rights decree through the water court process
Secure Funding
Approval by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission
Once these conditions are met and the acquisition is completed, Ute Water, the Grand Valley, and the Western Slope at large will realize the water security and sustainability benefits of Shoshone permanency.
Ute Water is proud to stand with our Western Slope community in preserving the lifeblood of our region – the Colorado River. Shoshone permanency has been generations in the making, and it will provide Western Slope water resources and prosperity for generations to come.
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