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.. , 002't56 Transcription - Gunnison River Issues Discussed in Director's Report, Item 4, July 23, 2001 Tape No.1, 1673 - 2069 Kuharich: Miskel: ., ..The Gunnison River, several things are occurring there." .the preferred biological Opinion activities will probably be delayed until we get some modeling done on the flows in the river. The water demand projections are moving forward to," .we did fmd out that the Bureau of Reclamation feels that it would take them 18 months to model their operation of Blue Mesa and Crystal and Morrow Point. We do have the capability in-house to do some modeling, and we've decided to move forward with that. The concern I have at this point is, the more you delay on these modeling activities, the more problematic a solution becomes to the Black Canyon National Recreation Area, and now the National Park, the solution of their reserved water rights, I might as well say it b1untly,..I think that any administration other than this administration is preferable to Fish and Wildlife and to Park Service to litigate the federal reserved water rights with the Park. And we are certainly attempting to move forward as expeditiously as possible. Weare trying to get a trial date set during this administration, and an agreement to stay discovery until 1 year prior to the trial date so that all the parties can negotiate, and its an attempt to kind of negotiate under the gun, or either we get things done or we move forward to court. So that's in the mill at this point. Rod.. .with regard to the water demand projections that the Bureau is supposed to be completing, I know there's been a lot of concern expressed up until this time about the water that is ... the water that this proj ect has made available, or supposedly reserved for use in Colorado, And I'm talking about the 240,000 Acre Feet that were acknowledged in the Union Park Litigation Case by the US Attorney General and the well _(?)_"..I don't know in got that right,. . and the 60,000-acre feet that was also reserved for the Upper Basin. And its my understanding that the Bureau has hesitated so far to acknowledge that that water is reserved for use in Colorado and should not be considered when looking at instream flows that are needed for the fish or for the Park Service or anybody else, And the letter that is now being passed around is the letter that was just written by three of our Congressmen, kind of addressing that issue. It was written to Gale Norton, and basically says to her.", "We want to make sure that the Bureau does set aside that 300,000 acre feet as being reserved for use in Colorado as part of our compact entitlement." And I commend these three Congressmen for doing that, because I think that sends a pretty strong message to the Department of Interior and to the Bureau of Reclamation, this is a very important issue for our state, I'mjust wondering if this Board ought to be doing something kinda to follow up or in concert with the Congressmen's efforts here, to kind of do a "me, too" 1