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. 

What is an augmentation plan? 

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 – in our case the Rio Grande River and its unconfined aquifer. These groundwater “depletions” caused by well pumping must be replaced (or augmented) by other sources of senior surface water, reservoir water, or return flows (or “accretions”) from recharged water, or through a reduction of irrigated acres. 

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 “decree” by the water court judge. This court decree must be followed by well owners or they will be forced to cease pumping groundwater.

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.

In 2022, 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.

In July 2023, the SWAG augmentation plan went to trial in the Division Three Water Court in Alamosa, and was heard by Chief Judge/Water Judge Michael A. Gonzales. 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. 

SWAG members (and now the Southern Colorado Water Conservancy District) have leased/purchased significant properties in the San Luis Valley – Gladstone Ranch and Shadow Ranch. The Gladstone Ranch 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. 

Shadow Ranch 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’s augmentation plan to offset groundwater pumping depletions of member wells, as well as a groundwater recharge project on the property. The SWAG board also obtained pre-approval of a Colorado Water Conservation Board loan to reduce the purchase expense of Shadow Ranch.