Trustees approve nonbinding MOU with Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District on augmentation and integrated water management

The Board of Trustees voted on May 13 to approve a nonbinding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District intended to clarify how the town and the district will work together if developers or other entities seek to use augmentation certificates or shared storage to cover out‑of‑priority depletions.

Joel (town staff) described the MOU as a communications and process roadmap designed to avoid conflicting messages to developers and to define responsibilities if Buena Vista chooses to accept augmentation certificates as part of water supply for projects. Town staff emphasized the town must still decide on a case‑by‑case basis whether to accept augmentation; the MOU does not impose an obligation to accept certificates.

Greg Felt, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District general manager, and Grace Givens, the district project manager, explained the district’s role in augmentation and storage. The district runs an augmentation program that covers about 3,500 structures and manages roughly 6,500 acre‑feet in storage across several reservoirs and facilities. Grace described how prior appropriation law and the Arkansas River interstate compact with Kansas (1949) limit new net depletions and make augmentation important for wells and ponds in the basin.

The presentation included technical points the trustees weighed: augmentation provides replacement water by releasing stored water at the right time and location to offset depletions from wells or increased evaporation on ponds; Cottonwood Lake operations and a planned spillway upgrade could add roughly 63 acre‑feet of useable storage; and pilot projects such as Trap Creek alluvial recharge are being studied to create subsurface storage that avoids evaporative losses.

Trustees discussed practicalities—how much augmentation the town would accept, how costs and legal requirements would be allocated, and how the town’s water planning decisions would drive any district action. Joel described the MOU as establishing the process for staff‑to‑staff consultation, developer engagement and for the district to provide augmentation or storage options when feasible.

The board approved a resolution authorizing the MOU and thanked district staff for the presentation. Trustees signaled interest in continued collaboration on integrated water management and on projects that combine storage, augmentation and exchanges to stretch existing supplies.

Ending: The trustees approved the nonbinding MOU. Staff will use the agreement as a framework when potential projects arise that require augmentation certificates, and the district will continue engineering and storage projects (Cottonwood Lake spillway work, Trap Creek infiltration studies) that could support future augmentation needs.