Read the full award nomination of Michael "Sandy" White
Bob Appel “Friend of the Arkansas” Award
Nomination of Michael D. “Sandy” White
Length of Service in Water Resources
Michael D. “Sandy” White served and worked to improve the condition of the Arkansas River and
waters tributary to it from the time he moved to Huerfano County in 2004 until he passed away in
September 2024.
Sandy attended West Point, graduating in 1963. Commissioned in the Air Force, he served as an
intelligence officer overseas. He subsequently graduated from Cornell Law School and was admitted
to the Colorado Bar in 1970.
As a water attorney, he practiced in Denver with the firm of Holland & Hart; in Grand Junction with
Nelson, Hoskins, Groves & Prinster; and in Fort Collins and Denver with his own firm, White &
Jankowski. Sandy served as a Master-Referee for the Colorado water courts for complex water cases
(trans-mountain diversions and Federal reserved rights). As an advocate, Sandy litigated over 100
water cases throughout the Rocky Mountain West, argued over 25 cases on appeal in numerous state
and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He was inducted as a member of the
"Ancient & Honorable Order of the Water Buffalo" by the Colorado Bar Association.
He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Rivers from 1989 to 2005. At Thorne Ecological
Institute, he served as a board member from 1978-1980 and as president from 1979 to 1980.
Sandy was on the faculty of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver law schools, as
well as the engineering school of Colorado State University. He authored one book, “Engineering
Aspects of Water Law,” with Leonard Rice, 1987, Wiley & Sons textbook publishers. He spoke at over
100 legal education seminars in 17 states and published more than 30 articles on legal issues,
mostly involving water.
Sandy’s 34-year career in Colorado water law was followed by retirement to Huerfano County in 2004.
Instead of spending his retirement, as he put it, “hunting, fishing, shooting clays, and finishing
a book on a Civil War general,” Sandy devoted his time to community affairs.
Respect Within the Water Community of the Arkansas Basin
Sandy was involved in developing CWCB’s Colorado State Water Plans of 2015 and 2023 to meet
Colorado's most critical water challenges. The Water Plan provides a comprehensive framework to
guide collaborative action from water agencies, partners and private landowners.
He was appointed by the Huerfano County Board of County Commissioners to be a representative on the
Arkansas Basin Roundtable (ABRT). He served as ABRT board member, vice-president and served four
years as president. He participated in development of the 2017 and the 2021 update of the Arkansas
Basin Implementation Plan. The BIP faced challenges centered around consumptive water needs of
agriculture and growing communities and nonconsumptive water needs to maintain river flows.
He also served on the Board of the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative. Founded on the need for
cohesive community and agency partnerships, ARWC is powered by community driven initiatives for
forest and watershed health, post-fire recovery efforts and collaborative solutions.
Development
As a resident of Huerfano County, Sandy served on the Huerfano County Federal Mineral Lease
District and La Veta Fire Protection District, among other organizations. His service on the
Huerfano County Water Conservancy District (HCWCD) began at a fortuitous juncture in that
organization’s evolution.
HCWCD was approached in 2008 by Steve Witte, then Division 2 Engineer of the Division of Water
Resources, about the need to establish a regional augmentation plan for water users in the Huerfano
River basin. The groups that were in dire need of augmentation water at the time included the town
of Gardner including its school (in imminent danger of having its municipal wells shut off by DWR),
CO61 Water Association, Huerfano County (road and bridge activities), and Paradise Acres Homeowners
Association. Witte suggested HCWCD would be the natural organization to develop that urgently
needed augmentation plan. This plan is a process for augmenting municipal, domestic and commercial
junior water uses in the river basin to alleviate injury to senior water rights holders.
Sandy was appointed by the District Court to the HCWCD Board of Directors in December 2012. From
2009 to 2017, HCWCD received State approval for a series of annual temporary Substitute Water
Supply Plans while working to get the Huerfano Basin Augmentation Plan adjudicated. He helped
shepherd HCWCD through the 5-year process of the Water Court filing beginning in 2013. He also
advised on prosecution of the application for the augmentation plan – originally opposed by ten
water users, all of whom eventually settled out.
During this time, HCWCD acquired Camp (William Craig) Ranch and its senior water rights with the
assistance of a $2.2-million loan from the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB). A portion was
dried up and today provides the water needed to operate the augmentation plan.
With an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering, Sandy was able to provide insights and a
balanced perspective during construction of augmentation and storage facilities needed to operate
the augmentation plan. The facilities were financed by a combination of a CWCB grant, the remainder
of the CWCB loan, plus revenues generated by the District’s mill levy.
Construction of the initial reservoir, pipeline, pumphouse, and controls, together referred to as
the Sheep Mountain Augmentation Facility, was completed in 2021.
Leadership
Sandy was one of the more notable voices in Huerfano County to sound the alarm on the startling
loss of water storage – 70% – in Huerfano County since WWII. He pointed out on multiple occasions
that the storage capacity in Huerfano County had dropped from over 45,000 acre-feet since WWII to
approximately 13,000 af, due primarily to the deterioration of earthen dams, which owners cannot
now afford to repair. Because the cost of rehabilitation of each structure is prohibitive, he
proposed a study that was geared to determining opportunities for collaborative or shared storage.
A water infrastructure improvement project was undertaken in 2017 in cooperation with Division of
Water Resources personnel to repair dilapidated river gages on the Huerfano and Cucharas Rivers.
It collected and evaluated diversion, call and river flow data in order to establish a “futile call” model
for use by the Division Engineer and his water commissioners.
Huerfano County water rights are often called out by downstream seniors, even water bypassed does
not reach the senior headgates for some 30-60 days, causing it to remain unused. The project was an
attempt to remedy that situation by giving water administration officials the ability to determine
that the downstream calls are “futile.” Funding of $125,000 was provided by CWCB through the ABRT,
with an additional $187,400 committed by State agencies – particularly DWR – local governments and
water users.
A phreatophyte eradication project in cooperation with Natural Resources Conservation Service was
undertaken in 2018 on the Cucharas River below La Veta and above Walsenburg. Non-native
phreatophytes (Russian olive and tamarisk) consume large amounts of water, making it unavailable
for diversion and use. The project involved roughly 300 acres of land held by about 40 landowners.
Conservation
The 2018 Spring Creek Fire devastated the headwaters of the Cucharas and Huerfano River basins.
Runoff from hydrophobic soils on the burn scar plagued property owners in the watershed with
flooding and debris flows.
At Sandy’s urging and under his guidance, HCWCD obtained grants for:
• Warning gages – Six flood warning gages were installed in 2019 to monitor the streams draining
the burn scar above La Veta and Walsenburg. At a cost of about $179,000, the gages were financed
through HCWCD by CDHSEM and CWCB grants, with substantial in-kind assistance and expertise from
DWR. After funding expired, HCWCD and Town of La Veta have been funding a contract operator and
additional years of satellite communication monitoring because flooding continues to be a problem.
• Burn scar work – A 2019 grant from the CWCB in the amount of $470,000 funded flood mitigation
work within the burn scar.
• Digital elevation and hydraulic models were developed to identify potential projects within the
Indian and Middle Creek watersheds. Technical evaluations were used to prioritize projects
identified by the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative throughout both basins based on existing
hazards and risk.
• A $100,000 treatment alternatives study in 2022 funded by CWCB to determine which future
projects would stand the best chance of success. Partners that contributed
$35,000 in match toward the strategic assessment were: Huerfano County, Town of La Veta and City of
Walsenburg.
• A second CWCB grant in the amount of $500,000 in 2021 funded additional projects to stabilize
the Middle Creek watershed. HCWCD worked in partnership with Huerfano County Road & Bridge and a
core stakeholder group that included participants from Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative
(ARWC), Spanish Peaks Alliance for Wildfire Protection, CWCB, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NRCS,
HCWCD, Town of La Veta, and Upon the Rock Camp.
Cooperation and Consensus Building
In his work on the HCWCD board, it was always Sandy’s advice to reach out to as many of the
District’s constituents as possible. The grant projects HCWCD undertook always sought to
involve cooperating local, state and federal agencies, organizations, water rights holders,
businesses, and landowners. The more diverse the participants, the better the results.
Cucharas Basin Storage Collaborative – Over its ten-plus-year existence, membership of the
Collaborative has included: Cucharas Sanitation and Water District, Town of La Veta, City of
Walsenburg, Maria Lakes Grazing Association, HCWCD, and Huerfano County, all of which have provided
local grant matches, as have the La Veta Fire Protection District, Upon the Rock Camp and the
Huerfano County Federal Mineral Lease District. The Colorado Division of Water Resources has
provided invaluable in-kind assistance. Sporadically participating in the meetings of the
Collaborative have been representatives of the United States Forest Service, the United States
Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife, and the
Colorado State Forest Service.
The first collaborative Cucharas River storage study ($220,000) was funded by a CWCB grant and
matched at $30,000 by local governments. Sandy had the foresight to suggest HCWCD form a broad base
of support for finding solutions to the storage problems in the County.
The Collaborative’s storage needs analysis resulted in five preferred storage sites, with cost and
yield estimates. Subsequent geotechnical studies narrowed the focus to three preferred sites for
30% engineering design, and two sites for 50% design. Cumulative costs on Collaborative Storage
projects to date are nearly $620,000. Over 20% of the work of the Collaborative has been supported
by local matching funds.
Intergovernmental Storage Exchange – With input from the local Water Commissioner and working with
legal counsel, Sandy helped facilitate an intergovernmental agreement among the applicants in 2020
to incorporate the decreed conditional junior storage rights for the five preferred reservoir sites
achieved in Division 2 Water Court Case 17CW3075 and the decreed rights in City of Walsenburg Case
17CW3063 along the Cucharas River. The goal was to integrate the operations of the large water
users in the Cucharas Basin to maximize water resources of the basin. Co-applicants with HCWCD in
the case were the Town of La Veta and Cucharas Sanitation & Water District.
Strategic Plan – This involved cooperating agencies and organizations in the development of a
strategic plan for HCWCD in 2013. Invited were: Division of Water Resources, Colorado Water
Conservation Board, City of Walsenburg, Town of La Veta, Cuchara Sanitation & Water District,
Huerfano County Board of County Commissioners. The plan was updated in 2020, again with a diverse
group of participants and interests.
Grant Projects – Some of the other grant projects that involved cooperating agencies, partners,
constituents, and municipalities have included:
Pre-fire assessment of the Upper Cucharas River Basin to identify critical areas subject to
wildfire and identify specific projects to reduce the likelihood of fire and to deal with flooding
that would follow such fires. 45% of the $100,000 project was funded by a CWCB grant, with the
remainder being contributed by local governments.
Preliminary engineering design of sediment basins identified as part of the pre-fire assessment
described above. The $100,000 project was funded by local government contributions in addition to a
CWCB grant.
Impact of Accomplishments:
Together with an exceptional group of hard-working board members, Sandy helped provide insights and
direction as HCWCD applied for and was approved for a series of CWCB grants to address the water
resources of Huerfano County.
Today the Huerfano Basin Augmentation Plan protects water rights from depletion impacts in the
1,869-square-mile Huerfano River basin, tributary to the Arkansas River. With Sandy’s
encouragement, HCWCD began looking toward establishing a similar augmentation plan for the Cucharas
River, also tributary to the Arkansas River. He was involved over the past three years in the
search for viable senior water rights to begin the process of filing for that second augmentation
plan.
During Sandy’s time on the ABRT, he helped promote best management practices for water usage in the
Arkansas River Basin.
From the very beginning of his service to HCWCD, he monitored legislative issues which would affect
the water resources of Huerfano County and the Arkansas River.
The collaborative planning process for investigating creation or rehabilitation of storage vessels
that would help rebuild the water storage capacity within the Arkansas River watershed has served
HCWCD well. In late 2022 on behalf of the Storage Collaborative, HCWCD applied to the USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for designation of a USDA PL-566 Small Watershed Project in
the Cucharas River watershed. The proposed combined project would build Bruce Canyon Reservoir
(1233 af) and enlarge Maria Stevens Reservoir (642 af). The request has progressed past the
feasibility study phase and is in the hands of NRCS. Under PL-566, further engineering design for
both reservoirs by NRCS would be covered at 100%, with the cost of eventual construction –
estimated today at $32-million – covered at 75%.
Never one to claim credit for projects undertaken by the District, in a 2015 report to the District
Court on activities, Sandy wrote, “It would be outrageous for me to claim sole credit for the
foregoing efforts. I do not. Members of the District’s board have worked as a team to accomplish
these things, and I feel privileged to work with them.”
The board did indeed function as a hard working and effective team. The District was eminently
better off having the benefits of Sandy White’s vision and water insights, as the HCWCD projects
over the past decade helped contribute to the stability of Arkansas River Basin water resources.
Submitted by,
Carol Dunn
Administrator
Huerfano County Water Conservancy District
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