A gas-drilling company has filed an application to replace water used in producing coal bed methane in Division 2 Water Court. Pioneer Natural Resources filed its application last month under new state rules brought on by a Supreme Court decision and legislation last year. The company operates nearly 3,000 wells in Las Animas County, mostly above Trinidad Lake in the Purgatoire River Basin.

Jeris Danielson, manager of the Purgatoire Water Conservancy District, said the district is close to reaching a stipulation on how many of those wells are tributary to the watershed. He has not seen the filing for the augmentation plan and could not comment.

In January, Pioneer filed a plan with the state Division of Water Resources claiming that about 1,800 of its wells are tributary. It also says that 1,170 of its wells produce nontributary water. Another 108 wells not yet drilled are also covered in the court filing. The filing describes how replacement water, or augmentation flows, would be discharged at numerous points throughout the watershed, accounting for both flowing and perennial streams. The application asks for storage rights at various points to use produced water from nontributary wells to augment flows. The application specifically avoids claiming salvaged water from tributary flows, based on previous court decisions.

The application cites last year's Colorado Supreme Court decision in Vance v. Wolfe, in which it was determined that using water in the production of coal bed methane is a beneficial use under Colorado water law.

Methane gas is found along coal seams underground, usually in the proximity of groundwater. The seams must be dewatered to recover the gas. As time goes on, there is less water and more gas produced by the wells.

The state engineer's office previously treated the produced water as a waste product, but the Vance decision ordered a rehearing of a Durango-area case in which two ranchers claimed their water rights could potentially be harmed by depletions to the groundwater table caused by coal bed methane pumping.

Following the Vance decision, the state Legislature passed HB1303 in 2009, which assimilates coal bed methane pumping into the state well-permit system and set timetables for gas companies to comply