Prairie Ditch and San Luis Valley Canal Litigation Support San Luis Valley, Colorado
The lands served by the Prairie Ditch and San Luis Valley Canal lie largely within what
is known as the "Closed Basin." The Closed Basin occupies the northern portion of the
San Luis Valley, and is separated from the Rio Grande's alluvial valley by a low topographic
divide and a shallow ground water divide oriented roughly parallel to the river. Water
imported into the Closed Basin does not naturally return to the Rio Grande.
Surface water is diverted from the Rio Grande into the Closed Basin for
recharge of a shallow aquifer. The ground water is subsequently pumped from
the aquifer and used to irrigate crops.
The Prairie Ditch and the San Luis Valley Canal Companies recognize that continued
importation of direct flow surface water from the Rio Grande, in conjunction with
ground water recharge, is crucial to sustaining the shallow ground water reservoir
that allows the continuing operation of their center pivot sprinkler systems. To
this end, Company shareholders have constructed ground water recharge facilities to
artificially recharge ground water.
Deere & Ault staff performed an investigation of the historical water use practiced
by the Prairie Ditch and San Luis Valley Canal Companies. The objectives of this
investigation were to confirm their historical practice of recharging the unconfined
aquifer of the Closed Basin, and to present a methodology and accounting procedure to
quantify the volume of recharge to the unconfined aquifer of the Closed Basin from
their water rights.
Deere & Ault staff also performed a hydrologic analysis of the Closed Basin, updating
the location of the ground water divide and provided expert witness testimony on the
Prairie Ditch Case, which was settled in late-2001. The San Luis Valley Canal Case
was decreed in 2003.
Client: Prairie Ditch Company and San Luis Valley Canal Company, Colorado
