The trustees' action is another in several moves over the past year or more to increase its supply of raw water on Grand Mesa for its municipal water system.

Town Trustee Jimmie Boyd presented the board with the offer he had received for the Leon Lake shares. Boyd explained, "This last week I had a lady approach me with five shares of Leon Lake water for sale. She is asking $5,000 for the five shares, which figures out to a little bit less than $2,500 per acre-foot. That's about the going rate.

"This water," Boyd continued, "has already been converted to domestic use or as augmentation water, as well as irrigation. The town has 85 shares of Leon Lake at this point, so this purchase would bring us up to 90 shares."

Boyd went on to explain that there are about 3,600 shares total in the Leon Lake water company. "The largest owner has about 225 shares," Boyd said. "There about 160 owners in the company, so no one individual or owner interest would be hit real hard if some kind of work had to be done on the reservoir."

Leon Lake is located on the north side of Grand Mesa in the Plateau Creek drainage. Water is transported to Surface Creek Valley by a tunnel that was constructed decades ago.

About two years ago, the lake became the focus of a court battle between the Ute Water Conservancy District in Grand Junction and the Grand Mesa Water Conservancy District. The Ute District filed objections in water court to motions the GMWCD had made involving Leon Lake on behalf of the Leon Lake company.

The dispute created tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses for the GMWCD. The district sought help from The Towns of Cedaredge and Orchard City to fight the legal battle and pay the legal bills. Both towns responded by making big cash donations to the effort.

The dispute was eventually resolved when the Ute District received guarantees it wanted on metering water diverted from the lake to Surface Creek and withdrew its objections. As a result, the GMWCD recognized the legal vulnerability of the complex water trading and transfer practices used on the south side of Grand Mesa and completed filings in state water court to protect them also.

Boyd explained to the town trustees further, "Leon Lake is a reservoir in (water) Region 5 which is across the mountain. It (ultimately) drains into the Colorado River. But, we have a tunnel that comes from the lake and brings water back over into our Region 4 in the Gunnison drainage.

"This is therefore imported, trans-basin water, so when we bring it over here is doesn't carry as many use restrictions, it is ‘use free' you might say.

"About three or four years ago, 2,000 acre-feet of Leon Lake water was converted for use as augmentation, municipal, and domestic water. My recommendation is to (buy these shares). It isn't a whole lot of water, and would be equivalent to about 2.2 acre-feet in an average year."

Trustee Gale Doudy pointed out that when the town changed its water conveyance policy earlier this year, part of its reasoning was that it would continue to buy additional raw water supplies when they came available. Trustee Marsha Thomas asked if there would be any problem getting the water from the lake into the town's collection system on the Mesa. Boyd said there would not be any.

The board accepted Doudy's motion to buy the shares at the asking price.

Boyd added that the certificates of ownership for the Leon Lake shares are in the Water Users' office, and that once signed by the seller they could be picked up by the town there for its permanent records.

Earlier this year the town purchased a large portion of Little Gem Reservoir previously owned by a private individual. The town owns all but one-sixth of Little Gem now. The town wants to own that final one-sixth share, but it is not available for purchase at this time, Mayor Don Suppes told the town board.

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