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OD3J89 Ralph Morgenweck Chairman, Implementation Committee Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program Robert Muth Director, Recovery Program U,S, Fish and Wildlife Service. P,O, Box 25486 . Denver Federal Center. Denver, CO 80225 . (303) 969-7322 . Fax (303) 969-7327 ES/Colorado River/FY -01 Mail Stop 65115 J~~o 4 200t REceiVED JUN 06 2001 Rod Kuharich, Director Colorado Water Conservation Board 1313 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 Colorado Water Cooservation Board Dear Dr. Kuharich The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has requested that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) report on water released during 2000 from western slope reservoir for endangered fishes. This letter responds to that request, it also serves as a concluding report to fulfill the Service's contractual obligation with the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to provide a report on releases from Ruedi Reservoir. This year's report covers releases from Ruedi, Wolford Mountain, Williams Fork, and Green Mountain reservoirs and discusses the benefits of these releases on theIS-Mile Reach of the Colorado River near Grand Junction, Colorado. In summary, 2000 was a dry water year. The target flow for July was 1480 cfs, and targets for August, September, and October were 810 cfs based upon the Service's flow recommendations for a 20% exceedance water year. Subsequent to the approval of a water-delivery contract among Reclamation, CWCB, and Service, 20,825 acre feet of water was available from Ruedi Reservoir and 6,000 acre feet was made available from Wolford Mountain Reservoir in accordance with project biological opinions. With the implementation of the IS-Mile Reach Programmatic Biological Opinion (PBO) an additional 10,825 acre feet of water was made available from Wolford Mountain and Williams Fork reservoirs on a 50% prorated basis. When flows began to decline in mid-July, the HUP Managing Entities began to meet to discuss flow conditions. By July 14, flows at the top ofthe IS-Mile Reach had dropped to the 1,480 cfs target and were continuing to decline. The Service then informed Reclamation that water was needed from Ruedi Reservoir in order to meet the fish target flows. Releases from Ruedi Reservoir began on July 15 and continued for 102 days until October 25, 2000. During that period, a total of 20,296 acre feet of water was released from Ruedi Reservoir that was accounted to endangered fish purposes by the State Engineers Office. During the late summer period, an additional 11,414 acre feet of water was released from Wolford Mountain Reservoir for the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association. Colorado Water Congress. Environmental Defense. National Park Service State of Colorado. State of Utah. State of Wyoming. The Nature Conservancy. U,S, Bureau of Reclamation. U,S, Fish and Wildlife Service Utah Water Users Association. Western Area Power Administration. Wyoming Water Association