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<br />3 <br /> <br />Other proposed modifications are listed below: <br /> <br />Amendment of the Denver/CRWCD Lease Agreement, resulting in the Denver <br />Water Board owning 40 percent of the Wolford Mountain Project subsequent <br />to the 25-year period of lease payments, which will expire in January <br />2020. <br /> <br />Water Court Case 91CW252, with stipulations, which limits the timing and <br />manner in which Denver may use the Wolford Mountain-to-Green Mountain <br />Substitution with an ultimate limitation of 160,000 acre-feet over any <br />running 30 year period, and a sharing of the substitution with Williams <br />Fork Reservoir. <br /> <br />Adoption on December 1, 1995. of a Marketing Policy by the Board of the <br />Colorado River Water Projects Enterprise of the CRWCD providing for the <br />utilization of the West Slope component of the reservoir. <br /> <br />The evaporative losses from the reservoir changed from 800 to <br />1000 acre-feet, to 2000 acre-feet in the modification proposal. <br /> <br />An additional 10,000 acre-feet will be marketed to western slope users, <br />probably to municipalities that will use the water for augmentation <br />plans. <br /> <br />The maximum pool elevation would increase from 7,485 feet msl to <br />7,489 feet msl, and the surface acreage would increase from 1,450 acres <br />to 1,550 acres. <br /> <br />The average annual depletion will increase from 7,716 acre-feet per year <br />to 13,485 acre-feet. <br /> <br />BASIS FOR BIOLOGICAL OPINION <br /> <br />This biological opinion addresses an average annual depletion of approximately <br />13,485 acre-feet from the Upper Colorado River Basin. Water depletions in the <br />Upper Basin have been recognized as a major source of impact to endangered <br />fish species. Continued water withdrawal has restricted the ability of the <br />Colorado River system to produce flow conditions required by various life <br />stages of the fishes. <br /> <br />Critical habitat has been designated for the Colorado squawfish, humpback <br />chub, bony tail , and razorback sucker within the 100-year floodplain in <br />portions of their historic range (59 F.R. 13374). Destruction or adverse <br />