CHAPTER 1 WATER SUPPLY AND PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY FOR ENERGY AND MINERAL DEVELOPMENT

• Jurisdiction: United States

Water-Energy Nexus: Acquisition, Use, and Disposal of Water for Energy and Mineral Development
(Sep 2012)
CHAPTER 1
WATER SUPPLY AND PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY FOR ENERGY AND MINERAL DEVELOPMENT
Tom Iseman
Western Governor's Association
Denver, Colorado
Phillippe L. Martin
Martin and Wood Water Consultants, Inc.
Golden, Colorado

TOM ISEMAN is the Program Director for Water Policy at the Western Governors Association, where he works on water supply, drought, and climate issues for the 19 Western States and 3 U.S.-Flag Pacific Islands. Prior to joining WGA, Tom worked on water resource issues for the U.S. Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy. Tom has extensive experience in statewide and regional water supply planning, including Colorado's Statewide Water Supply Initiative, the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, and FERC hydropower relicensing. Tom grew up in Englewood, CO, and received a BA in History from Princeton University (focusing on Western water issues) and an MS from the University of Michigan in aquatic ecology. Tom lives in Denver with his wife Alex and daughter Claire. He enjoys outdoor activities and is a board member of his Curtis Park neighborhood association.

PHILLIPPE L. MARTIN has been working in the field of water resources consulting for 32 years and has, for the past 21 years, been vice president and principal hydrogeologist of Martin and Wood Water Consultants, Inc., a Golden-based consulting firm specializing in surface- and groundwater-resources engineering and hydrogeology. Prior to entering the water resources consulting world, Mr. Martin gained experience as a wellsite geologist working on oil and gas wells in Wyoming, and also working as a technician for a Denver-based geotechnical consulting company. Since transitioning to the area of hydrogeology in 1981, Mr. Martin has worked extensively throughout the state of Colorado, and has experience with hydrogeologic investigations in most of the principal hydrogeologic regimes in Colorado, including alluvial, sedimentary bedrock, fractured crystalline rock, and volcanic rock aquifers. Over the past five years, he has assisted several CBM gas producing companies in dealing with the ongoing and evolving changes in Colorado law and administration as it relates to co-produced waters. He was heavily involved in the Produced Water Hearings promulgated by the State of Colorado and provided testimony relating to hydrogeologic analyses into the tributary or nontributary status of both CBM and conventional gas producing formations in the Central Raton, Northern San Juan, Piceance, and Vermillion/Sand Wash Basins. He continues to work with the Central Raton and Northern San Juan Basin Producers in the ongoing annual updates to the Substitute Water Supply plans and monthly water production accounting/reporting, and on development of the long term augmentation plans that will ultimately be adjudicated in Colorado Water Court. Mr. Martin earned a bachelor of science in geology from the University of Massachusetts in 1978 and a masters of science in Computer Information Systems from Regis University in 1999.

Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation

The Water-Energy Nexus Water Supply and Physical Availability for Energy and Mineral development

September 13, 2012

Presented By

Phillippe L. Martin, P.G, C.P.G

Vice President

Martin and Wood Water Consultants, Inc.

Focus of Presentation

• Build on preceding presentation

• Assessment of Concerns in Colorado - (although some may apply to other SW states)

• Specific example (South Platte River) as well as general overview of issues

MARTIN AND WOOD WATER CONSULTANTS, INC.

[Page 1-2]

Water Supply in Colorado - an Arid Climate Scenario

Sources - Surface Water

• Seven Divisions corresponding to the seven major drainages

• Very few systems not under administration - Heavily administered; under priority system

• Any water used must be decreed/permitted for industrial or energy/mineral-specific purposes

• Must be legally and administratively available as well as physically

Surface Water Sources

• Changed irrigation ditch rights (CU water)

— Uses decreed must cover intended uses

• Municipal rights

— Water leased from municipalities

• Reusable effluent, for example

— Other consumptive use water

• District providers

— CBT, for example

• Not usable outside Northern District

• Trans-Basin water

• Tributary wells

— Uses decreed/permitted must cover intended uses

— Typically requires decreed augmentation plan or SWSP

[Page 1-3]

Water Supply in Colorado - an Arid...