Colorado River District tells Ouray County it can help install soil‑moisture monitoring and develop a public water dashboard; O&M charges and "no‑call" releases

Representatives of the Colorado River District told the Ouray County Board of County Commissioners on Oct. 8 that the district can help install soil‑moisture monitoring in the county, support a public water dashboard that pulls data from existing sources, and continue funding local multi‑benefit water projects — but commissioners raised concerns about operating‑and‑management charges and the limits of the county’s "no‑call" lease protections.

The River District’s Kerry Dennison and Zane Kessler outlined options for adding a CoAgMet/CSU‑linked soil‑moisture station on privately donated land and connecting that information to existing networks such as SNOTEL and the Colorado Basin Forecast Center. "CSU has some options. Essentially what it would work out as we could put a monitoring system here in your county, on private land. It would be connected to, the existing soil moisture and monitoring network," Dennison said. The district suggested the county could host soil‑moisture data and other gauges on a simple web dashboard for residents, producers and water managers.

Kessler said the district could provide template web scripts and technical support to pull data from public databases and display gauges: "That data is all in the same database... you can **** the data out of the database using web scripts, JSON, scripts. And you can take the the data that's in the system and display it on infinite number of websites." County commissioners and staff framed a dashboard as a priority for Ridgeway Reservoir transparency, streamflow tracking and to help explain past reservoir releases.

The River District also described its Community Funding Partnership, which the district said has contributed about $157,000 to Ouray County water projects since inception. District staff urged local water users to pursue head‑gate replacements and multi‑benefit projects on Dallas Creek and Cow Creek; staff said the River District can provide initial engineering or matching funds for CWCB (Colorado Water Conservation Board) or state water plan grants through Melissa Wells and other staff.

Commissioners and water users pressed the panel about costs tied to a county water lease intended to prevent a junior downstream water call. Dennison said Tri‑County raised O&M charges this year for the county's lease releases — a charge the county estimate described during the meeting as roughly $7 per acre‑foot on 3,000 acre‑feet (a $21,000 bill). "It would be great, just to have help getting them to donate that in kind or even, you know, significantly reducing that rate because we just you know, it doesn't cost them $21,000 to to change a few lines on their spreadsheet," Dennison said. Commissioners asked whether the River District could add O&M as an allowable expense in a CFP (Community Funding Partnership) award; River District staff said the grant amount could be reviewed to cover unexpected costs.

Commissioners and local irrigators also discussed a recent intra‑basin administration call on the Uncompahgre that had abruptly cut some irrigators off in late summer. Panelists warned that a no‑call agreement with the M and D (a project pool) does not prevent intra‑basin senior calls, and urged better information and communications with the Division of Water Resources and the local water commissioner. "Just because the big calling right is gone does not mean that in a really bad year, people aren't gonna call each other out," the district said.

The River District staff recommended next steps: (1) pursue CSU/CoAgMet soil‑moisture placement and scope of data for a county dashboard; (2) encourage water users to submit projects to the River District CFP; and (3) work with Tri‑County and the county on the O&M charge issue for the current lease. Dennison offered to help the county pursue a longer‑term lease renewal for the district’s water lease and to participate in federal and state advocacy for Colorado Basin water projects.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff to follow up with River District staff about soil‑moisture siting, dashboard funding sources and outreach to the Division of Water Resources, and to bring possible CFP funding applications forward to the county. The River District noted it had given public direction the day before to withdraw opposition to a 2021 in‑stream flow court case; that decision was described as a River District board action, not a county action.