The Rifle City Council listened to a funding request from a Colorado River District representative during their Wednesday regular session.

“We are asking that the City of Rifle consider a funding request for $100,000,” Amy Moyer said, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Colorado River District. 

The Colorado River District, as Moyer explained, is asking for the money because they’re trying to purchase the Shoshone Water Rights. 

The Shoshone Hydro Power Plant sits in Glenwood Canyon and is owned by the Public Service Company of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy. It produces 15 megawatts of hydro power, which is enough to power around 15,000 homes.

“To operate the plant, water is diverted from the Colorado River near the Hanging Lake tunnel, it travels around two and half miles through a tunnel, drops through the penstocks, and is immediately returned to the river,” Moyer explained. 

The historic Shoshone Water Rights, Moyer continued, are extremely important, especially to those in the Western Slope of Colorado. 

“They’re among the largest non-consumptive water rights on the Colorado River, the first being the senior water right that was appropriated in 1902, that carries 1,250 cubic feet per second (cfs), and the second water right that’s associated with the Shoshone Hydro Power Plant, that’s an additional 158 cfs, so that’s a total of 1408 cfs,” Moyer said. 

Non-consumptive means that this water is diverted from the Colorado River, but is then put back, ensuring that any water used can then be beneficial later on in its journey downriver. 

“It also means that the river operates year-round,” Moyer said. 

Moyer explained the district’s reasoning for wanting to go forward with purchase now: 

“We’re standing on a decades-long foundation of many governmental entities that have worked pretty tirelessly to line up these pieces to secure these water rights. We also have a willing partner in Xcel energy, the current owner of the water rights being willing to sell them,” Moyer said. 

She added that they have historic funding opportunities on both the state and federal side that make a purchase price for the magnitude of the water rights a real opportunity for the Western Slope. Other reasons for the purchase happening now are seeing impacts of a hotter and dryer future, and the stability of Western Slope in terms of communities that draw on the water. 

“Preserving the Shoshone Water Rights is incredibly important to our recreation economy. River recreation contributes $14.6 billion to the state’s GDP,” Moyer said about the multiple benefits to Colorado and the Western Slope if they attain these rights. 

Other benefits of this 250 mile stretch would be for the agriculture, water quality and environment of the Colorado River, which includes four species of endangered fish. 

Moyer said that Public Service Company of Colorado and the Colorado River District signed a purchase and sale agreement to transfer ownership of the historic Shoshone Water Rights to the Colorado River District on Dec, 19, 2023, for a purchase price of $98.5 million.

There are four parts to the agreement. One of those parts is securing funding for that purchase price. 

“We’re working with our west slope coalition partners to secure $10 to $20 million of that purchase price. The Colorado River District has already committed $20 million. At the end of January, the state of Colorado, through the Colorado Water Conservation Board, also committed $20 million to the purchase price,” Moyer said. “All of that is aimed at setting us up for success to request $49 million from the federal government.”

The Colorado River District is requesting these funds in advance to be put into an escrow account, which wouldn’t be used unless they did all that was asked of them in the purchase agreement between the district and the Public Service Company of Colorado.

“If, for any reason, the purchase and sale agreement was terminated, the funds, with interest, would be returned to all of the coalition partners and public entities,” Moyer said. 

The Colorado River District doesn’t need these funds until the end of 2027, but they’re working on these funding commitments now because they believe it’s important to their ask of federal funding. 

The city council authorized staff to sign a letter committing $100,000 to the purchase of the Shoshone Water Rights. This would be in the budget for 2025. 

“I just want everyone to realize how historic this Shoshone Water Rights Purchase is and how it can totally save the western slope in case something ever happened to Xcel or that power plant. So I’m glad they came in and I’m glad we’re partnering with them,” council member Clint Hostettler said in their closing comments for the meeting.