BOARD00077 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/13/2006
• Description: CF Section - Referred Non-Reimbursable Investments - WSP Section - CWCB - Recreational and Environmental Instream Flows Study
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Water Supply Finance and Construction Program - Project Data

Grantee: Colorado Water Conservation Board

County:

Statewide

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~ Project Name: Recreational and Environmental Instream Flows Study
Project Type: Study
Drainage Basin: All River Basins in Colorado

Water Source: N/A

Total Project Cost: $150,000
Type of Grantee: State Government
CWCB Non-Reimbursable Jnv.: $150,000

Funding Source: CWCB Const. Fund
Median Household income: NI A
Interest Rate: N/A Term: N/A

SUMMARY
Colorado has been at the forefront of instream flow water rights since 1973, when the General
Assembly recognized that the CWCB should be able to appropriate instream flow water rights for a
beneficial llse within Colorado. Then, in the past decade, Recreational In-Channel Diversion
("RICD") water rights have been recognized and appropriated by a number of different local
governmental entities. There have been disagreements over quantifying RICDs and over the extent to
which these types of water rights provide economic benefits to the surrounding communities. Through
the Statewide Water Supply Initiative ("SWSI") and the 1177 basin roundtables, it is becoming
apparent that recreation and environmental in stream uses hold value to individual communities and the
state as a whole. Yet, there are vastly different economic values put on these types of instream uses of
water, and there are vastly different methods and results associated with the methods for determining
the appropriate flows for these types of llses. The proposed study would have the following
~ objectives: 1) to analyze how instream flow water rights (ISFs and RICDs) have affected, and will
affect in the future, water management in Colorado; 2) to provide an objective analysis of the different
quantification methods; and, 3) to determine the true economic benefits associated with these types of
water rights. Project Impact Area - Stat~wide (many of the whitewater courses
across the State are marked below, instream flows are also across the

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