WSPP287

• File Number: 8240.200.49.J
• Description: Colorado River Threatened-Endangered - RIPRAP - Price-Stubb Fish Passage - Environmental Studies
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 12/1/2004
• Author: DOI-BOR
• Title: Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact - RE- Providing Endangered Fish Passage at the Price-Stubb Diversion Dam on the Colorado River - 12-01-04
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

001081

Final Environmental Assessment-Chapter 3-Affected Environment and
Environmental Consequences

Impacts

No Action: The No Action alternative would have no affect on existing water
rights. The opportunity to use PID's power right to lift irrigation water if the Government
Highline Canal was unable to make deliveries would continue. The probability of using
the Price-Stubb Diversion Dam to provide an emergency irrigation water supply is very
remote. Pumping and conveyance facilities to support this use no longer exist, and it
would require a substantial amount of time and money to reestablish them. Likewise, the
opportunity to use the Price-Stubb Diversion Dam as a fore bay to pump domestic,
municipal and industrial water would continue. However, the probability of using this
water right at this location is remote, since the City of Grand Junction and the Clifton
Water District do not have distribution systems in this area. In addition, FERC
established a prescriptive easement for fish passage and providing fish passage as a
condition of the Jacobson Hydro No.1 Project license which has been terminated by
FERC.

Conventional Fish Ladder: This alternative would have the same effect on
water rights as the No Action Alternative. If constructed, only about 1,000 cfs of the
2,100 cfs water rights associated with the terminated Jacobson Hydro No.1 Project
would be available under the amended FERC license (FERC, 2001).

Downstream Rock Fish Passage: This alternative would have the same effect
on water rights as the No Action Alternative. .

Downstream Rock Fish Passage with Whitewater Recreation Features:
Under this alternative, the Jacobson Hydro No.1 Project and the Town of Palisade would
enter into an agreement to ensure adequate flows over the dam for whitewater recreation.
With or without the Jacobson Hydro No.1 Project, the fish passage would receive the
fIrst 80 cfs of flow in the river, ensuring continual fish passage operations.

Dam Removal: The Dam Removal Alternative would preclude the PID from
pursuing development of a backup irrigation system or hydropower facility at the dam.
Consequently, PID opposes removal of the dam. As co-owners of the dam, PID could
prohibit the dam removal alternative.

This alternative would also preclude using the dam as a forebay to pump domestic,
municipal and industrial water. The owners of this right have said that this impact would
not affect their ability to meet their existing and future needs. The option of constructing
and operating the Jacobson Hydro No. 1 Project would be precluded by dam removal and
would likely result in the abandonment of hydropower rights.

E.R. Jacobson and PID have both suggested using their decreed rights and facilities as a
point of delivery for surplus water from the Green Mountain Reservoir Historic User
Pool. This water is available in some years and under certain hydrologic conditions as
part of the Orchard Mesa Check Settlement, with the objective of indirectly benefiting
endangered fish habitat. However, Reclamation in 2001 completed a contract with the

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