DISTRICT COURT, WATER DIVISION NO. 2, COLORADO

TO: ALL INTERESTED PARTIES

Pursuant to C.R.S. 37-92-302, you are hereby notified that the following case is a portion of the resume of applications and amendments filed and/or ordered published during the month of October 2025, in Water Division No. 2. The Water Judge ordered this case be published in the Kiowa County Press in Kiowa County, Colorado. This publication can be viewed in its entirety on the state court website at: www.coloradojudicial.gov.

The name(s) and address(es) of applicant(s), description of water rights or conditional water rights and description of ruling sought as reflected by said application, or amendment, are as follows.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CASE NO. 2025CW3056; LOWER ARKANSAS WATER MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (LAWMA), c/o Roy Cue, Manager, 310 South 6th Street, PO Box 1161, Lamar, Colorado 81052 (Please address all pleadings and inquiries regarding this matter to Applicant’s attorneys: Richard J. Mehren, Jennifer M. DiLalla, Molly K. Haug-Rengers, Adam C. Fisher, Moses, Wittemyer, Harrison and Woodruff, P.C., 2595 Canyon Blvd., Suite 240, Boulder, CO, (303) 443-8782)

Amended Application For Plan For Augmentation

PROWERS COUNTY

2. Purpose of application: LAWMA is a non-profit corporation organized for the purpose of, among other things, providing a means for its members to continue to make ground water diversions from wells and other structures with junior priorities and to continue to make surface water diversions from structures with junior priorities in the Arkansas River water rights regime. The purpose of this application is to include additional structures in LAWMA’s plan for augmentation (“Augmentation Plan”), which was decreed on March 8, 2007, in Case No. 02CW181, Water Division No. 2 (“02CW181 Decree”). Under paragraph 43 of the 02CW181 Decree, LAWMA may add wells or other structures to the Augmentation Plan by filing an application with the Water Court. 3. Description of structures to be augmented: The three structures described below, which are further described in Exhibit A (“Additional LAWMA Structures”). A map showing the locations of the Additional LAWMA Structures is attached to the application as Exhibit B. (All exhibits mentioned herein are incorporated by reference and may be inspected at the office of the clerk of this Court.)

The Additional LAWMA Structures are three existing deep wells owned by S&L Cattle, LLC, and located north of the City of Lamar within Prowers County; the wells pump groundwater from the Cheyenne Aquifer to supply a cattle feedlot with an estimated capacity of up to 15,000 head of cattle. The Additional LAWMA Structures currently operate under Permit Nos. 38064-F (WDID 6705926), 25557-F (WDID 6705928), and 38066-F (WDID 6705927). The Additional LAWMA Structures with Permit Nos. 38064-F (WDID 6705926) and 25557-F (WDID 6705928) are currently permitted to pump a combined 29.5 acre-feet per year, and the Additional LAWMA Structure with Permit No. 38066-F (WDID 6705927) is currently permitted to pump 37 acre-feet per year (each a “Permitted Pumping Volume”). Therefore, the total combined Permitted Pumping Volume for the Additional LAWMA Structures is 66.5 acre-feet per year. 4. Water rights and other sources of water to be used for augmentation: Those water rights and other sources of water identified in paragraph 40 of the 02CW181 Decree and in the decrees entered in Case Nos. 05CW52, 10CW85, 15CW3067, and 17CW3068 (“Existing Augmentation Supplies”); and those water rights and other sources of water that are added to the Augmentation Plan consistent with paragraph 41 of the 02CW181 Decree. Tables identifying the Existing Augmentation Supplies by name, decree(s), location, source, appropriation date, amount, and decreed use(s) are attached as Exhibits C-1 and C-2, and a map showing the decreed locations of the Existing Augmentation Supplies is attached as Exhibit D-1. A map showing the boundaries of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District is attached Exhibit D-2. 4.1 Use of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water and return flows as an augmentation source: The Additional LAWMA Structures are located within the boundaries of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and water pumped from the Additional LAWMA Structures will be used within such boundaries. Accordingly, LAWMA may use Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water, including return flows, to replace depletions caused by the Additional LAWMA Structures. 5. Statement of plan for augmentation: The amount, timing, and location of depletions from the Additional LAWMA Structures will be determined in accordance with the methodologies approved in the 02CW181 Decree. The stream depletions that will be accounted for and replaced under the Augmentation Plan are only the depletions that result from pumping of each Additional LAWMA Structure in excess of its Permitted Pumping Volume. LAWMA estimates that the Additional LAWMA Structures will pump an additional 135.1 acre-feet per year above the total combined Permitted Pumping Volume. Under the Augmentation Plan, LAWMA shall account for and fully replace all out-of-priority depletions caused by pumping of each Additional LAWMA Structure in excess of the Permitted Pumping Volume. LAWMA shall replace such depletions with fully consumable water in accordance with the terms and conditions of the 02CW181 Decree and the decree to be entered in this case, in a manner that protects Colorado senior surface water rights from injury and ensures compliance with the Arkansas River Compact. The depletions from pumping of the Additional LAWMA Structures under the Augmentation Plan will impact the stream at the outcrop of the Cheyenne Aquifer on North Butte Creek that is closest to the Additional LAWMA Structures. North Butte Creek is a tributary of Two Butte Creek, tributary to the Arkansas River. There are no water rights on North Butte Creek or Two Butte Creek downstream of the location where the Additional LAWMA Structures deplete North Butte Creek. The confluence of Two Butte Creek and the Arkansas River is located downstream of the Buffalo Canal’s river headgate on the Arkansas River and downstream of the lower terminus of the appropriative right of exchange decreed in Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc.’s Case No. 07CW74, and therefore depletions from pumping of the Additional LAWMA Structures under the Augmentation Plan will be assumed to impact the Arkansas River at the confluence of Two Butte Creek and the Arkansas River near the Town of Holly and to accrue to the Colorado-Kansas Stateline. 5.1 Integration into Case No. 02CW181 accounting and projection: Accounting for operation of the Additional LAWMA Structures will be incorporated into the accounting and projection required by paragraphs 47.E and 47.I of the 02CW181 Decree. Such accounting will include, without limitation, monthly diversions, monthly unlagged depletions, and monthly lagged depletions, if any, for each Additional LAWMA Structure, as well as the fully consumable water sources available for replacement of such depletions. Additionally, in accounting for operation of the Additional LAWMA Structures, LAWMA shall use the integrated accounting forms approved in the decree entered in Case No. 14CW3004 on August 1, 2017. 5.2 No modification of 02CW181 Decree: This Application does not seek to change any provision of the 02CW181 Decree other than the inclusion of the Additional LAWMA Structures. This Application does not seek a change of water right for any of the Existing Augmentation Supplies, nor any change to decreed terms and conditions applicable to augmented structures previously included in the Augmentation Plan. Instead, this application seeks (i) the Court’s approval of LAWMA’s inclusion of the Additional LAWMA Structures in the Augmentation Plan in accordance with the terms and conditions of the 02CW181 Decree; and (ii) accordingly, the Court’s confirmation that LAWMA will fully replace, so as to prevent injury to Colorado Senior surface water rights and ensure compliance with the Arkansas River Compact, all out-of-priority depletions caused by pumping of each Additional LAWMA Structure in excess of its Permitted Pumping Volume under the Augmentation Plan. 6. Name and address of owner of land upon which any new diversion or storage structure, or modification to any existing diversion or storage structure, is or will be constructed or upon which water is or will be stored, including any modification to the existing storage pool: Not applicable. WHEREFORE, LAWMA respectfully requests that this Court enter a decree approving this plan for augmentation and determining that such plan for augmentation will not cause injury to the vested or decreed conditional water rights of others and will not violate the Arkansas River Compact.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE WATER RIGHTS CLAIMED BY THE FOREGOING APPLICATION(S) MAY AFFECT IN PRIORITY ANY WATER RIGHTS CLAIMED OR HERETOFORE ADJUDICATED WITHIN THIS DIVISION AND OWNERS OF AFFECTED RIGHTS MUST APPEAR TO OBJECT AND PROTEST WITHIN THE TIME PROVIDED BY STATUTE, OR BE FOREVER BARRED.

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that any party who wishes to oppose an application, or application as amended, may file with the Water Clerk a verified statement of opposition setting forth facts as to why the application should not be granted, or why it should be granted only in part or on certain conditions, such statement of opposition must be filed by the last day of December 2025, (forms available at Clerk’s office or at www.coloradojudicial.gov, must be served on parties and certificate of service must be completed; filing fee $192.00). The foregoing are resumes and the entire application, amendments, exhibits, maps and any other attachments filed in each case may be examined in the office of the Clerk for Water Division No. 2, at the address shown below.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Witness my hand and the seal of this Court this 7^th day of November 2025.

/s/ Michele M. Santistevan

Michele M. Santistevan, Clerk

District Court Water Div. 2

501 N. Elizabeth Street, Suite 116

Pueblo, CO 81003

(719) 404-8832

(Court seal)

Published November 14, 2025

In The Kiowa County Press