Projects and Studies

The Martin Springs Irrigation project will make improvements to an existing storage pond and point of diversion. They will dredge an existing pond to remove accumulated sediment. This will provide capacity for the absolute storage right of 3.5 acre-feet. They will install a stainless steel head gate and 12” HDPE pipe diversion structure, and construct approximately 600 feet of lateral swales for 11.42 irrigated acres.

Approved: September, 2019

Basin Ask: $7,462

Application                         Reports

The project replaces a major diversion headgate and flood control structure serving the Walker Ditch located on the Yampa River, three miles east of Hayden Colorado. The project headgate was constructed in approximately 1940 after the river migrated north away from the original 1890 headgate location. The 1940 river migration required an extension of the ditch through the old channel and new headgate structure on the new river channel.

Approved: May, 2019 

Completed March, 2021

Basin Ask: $62,222

Application                           Reports

The 2018 Yampa River Health Assessment and Streamflow Management Plan (aka The Stream Management Plan) found that the riparian forest is degraded on the reach of the Yampa River above the Chuck Lewis State Wildlife Area, through town and to the Wastewater Treatment Plant and that improving the quality of the vegetation, particularly the shading canopy cover, will lead to improvements in stream temperature and water quality on the Yampa River. By restoring the river forest, this 3-year project that was identified as a top priority action item in the Stream Management Plan, will also help to improve aquatic and terrestrial habitat and to stabilize the river channel thus making it more resilient to floods, droughts, or human impacts. The City intends to partner with the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council’s (YVSC) Re-Tree program to restore the riparian forest through strategic plantings of willows, alders, cottonwoods and other native river plant species on Public Open Space parcels and other prioritized locations. This project will connect community members, especially youth, to the river through this locally established volunteer tree-planting program. The WSRF funds will be used to design and prioritize restoration projects; to secure an adequate supply of trees and shrubs that are purchased and/or harvested locally; to construct a seasonal riparian plant nursery, if deemed necessary, to coordinate plantings on the prioritized areas, and to provide long-term care and protection for the seedlings.

Approved: January, 2019 

Completed January, 2022

Basin Ask: $25,000

YWG Application                                      Reports

The White River Algae research project Scope of Work (SOW) will be conducted by USGS to improve the understanding of why an excessive amount of benthic algae is occurring in the White River over the past 3 – 5 years. A better understanding based on science is expected to lead to the development of mitigation strategies for decreasing benthic algae in the White River.

Approved: November, 2018

Completed December, 2021

Basin Ask: $99,000

YWG Application                                              Reports                       Website

The Yampa River Leafy Spurge Project (YRLSP) engages private land owners, federal, state and local government agencies, educational, environmental and recreation organizations and interested individuals, who share a concern for the economic and ecological future of the Yampa Valley. We are working together to establish an effective program of integrated management for leafy spurge an emerging threat to our regional agricultural economy and riparian watershed health.

Approved: September, 2018 

Completed December, 2021

Basin Ask: $89,000

YWG Application                                         Reports

The John McConnell Math and Science Center located downtown Grand Junction on the Colorado Mesa University campus.

This grant will help construct a 400 sq ft hydrology exhibit that includes an interactive water table with multiple hands on tanks that demonstrate principles of hydrology, river dynamics, water cycles, agriculture and municipal uses, conservation, and water law for kids and parents of all ages to enjoy and learn.

This grant will help develop and implement water education and outreach in the Basin. This is a 3-Year Program of Collateral Dissemination, Media Networking, Forums and Workshops on behave of the Yampa White Green Basin Roundtable and the Public Education Patriation Outreach committee.

Awarded: May, 2016

Completed June, 2021

Basin Ask: $150,000

Application                               Reports

Project to replace the outlet of Simon # 1 Dam on Crosho lake.

Approved: March, 2016

Completed December, 2019

Basin Ask: $30,000

State Ask: $108,380

Reports

The Maybell Ditch Improvement Project installed an automated waste gate and a measuring flume in the Maybell Ditch. In addition, the District permanently stabilized a hillside that had been reducing irrigation efficiency and producing sediment loads into the Yampa River for many years. Gates were also installed in strategic locations on the ditch to improve water management, helping to manage water flows and reduce tail water.

Approved: November, 2016

Completed February, 2018 

Basin Ask: $45,675

Application                               Report

In March of 2015, the Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District completed an initial feasibility study to identify potential water storage sites in the White River Basin. The study evaluated 25 potential storage sites along the White River and concluded that a new reservoir, located near the confluence of the White River and Wolf Creek, would provide a very efficient, cost effective, multipurpose water project for northwestern Colorado The purpose of  additional White River water storage is to conserve and put to beneficial use some of the approximately 500,000 acre-feet of unused water that flows out of Colorado from the White River each year. The Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District continues to face a serious water crisis because it’s Kenney Reservoir, which originally provided 13,800 acre-feet of storage, is silting in at an average rate of more than 300 acre-feet per year. The annual loss of water storage in Kenney Reservoir reduces recreation use in the reservoir each year and significantly increases the risk to the Town of Rangely’s water supply in times of droughts. Storing a portion of the water that flows out of Colorado from the White River each year will provide significant benefits to endangered fish; provide additional water for municipal, agricultural, and industrial; provide water quality benefits; and meet future demands for a variety of recreation activities in northwest Colorado. The Phase 1 study also documented that that a new Wolf Creek Reservoir would produce additional annual tax revenues of nearly $1.4 million to local economies and the State of Colorado.

Approved: March, 2017

Basin Ask: $85,000

State Ask: $82,888

Application                           Reports 

The Yampa River Health Assessment and Streamflow Management Plan identifies a long-term strategy for protecting and improving the health and resiliency of the Yampa River near Steamboat Springs.  This project develops a Stream Management Plan that supports a resilient and healthy river and appropriate river recreation along a highly used reach of the Yampa River from the Chuck Lewis State Wildlife Area to the Steamboat Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant.

This project/study will focus on efforts to improve lysimeter operation in the Yampa Basin.  New bucket type lysimeters and a full automated weather station on the Carpenter Ranch.  The bucket new lysimeters are weighing lysimeters instead of compensating lysimeters.  The new lysimeters will provide quantitative assessment of irrigated hay meadow consumptive use and its relation to local weather conditions.  A second grant was awarded for the continued operation of the site.

At the December 14, 2014 joint meeting of the four West Slope Roundtables, participants
requested information to facilitate intra-basin discussion of demand management, should low
levels at Lake Powell require that tool, as well as discussion of potential future development of
West Slope Colorado River system supplies. In response, the Colorado River District and
Southwestern Water Conservation District proposed Phase I of the Colorado River Risk Study.
Each district and each Roundtable shared in the costs. This continued into a Phase II, and at the
April 25 joint meeting, the four West Slope Roundtables will contemplate the need for a Phase
III and what questions it would tackle.

Approved: March, 2016          March, 2017

Basin Ask: $8,000                    $10,000

Reports 

The YWG BRT identified eight primary basin goals. The principal objective underlying all of the goals is the maintenance and protection of historical water use in the YWG Basin as well as the protection of water supplies for future in-basin demands. The YWG Basin goals ultimately seek to promote a healthy and diversified economy long into the future. By maintaining historical water use, residents in the YWG Basin will continue to use the YWG Basin’s natural resources sustainability which will consequently maintain a balanced and diverse economic base. To effectively address future uncertainties, the YWG BRT supports the use of a scenario planning approach for regional and statewide water supply planning that recognizes that both wet and dry periods will occur in the future.

Approved: 2013 to 2014

Completed 2015

Basin Ask: $395,000

State Ask: $152,000

BIP webpage

In this project the Routt County Conservation District contracted with CSU to conduct a reconnaissance and scoping effort.  The objectives were to evaluate the need for and to define the nature of a project aimed at assessing the impact of current and altered irrigation practices on irrigation return flows and related groundwater conditions in Colorado’s Yampa and White River Basins.

Approved: July, 2015

Basin Ask: $13,250

Reports