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8/15/2009 11:56:09 AM
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6/12/2007 7:44:03 AM
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Interbasin Compact Committee
Title
Water As Ecosystem Base 31st Gunnison Water Workshop
Date
7/25/2006
Author
Melinda Kassen
Interbasin CC - Doc Type
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<br />. 30 year leases of water from Montana agricultural water users to Trout Unlimited, the <br />Montana Water Trust and Montana state agencies for instream flow restoration; <br />. Releases from storage, such as was pioneered right here in the Upper Gunnison Basin <br />using the second fill from Taylor Park Reservoir; <br />. Bypass flow requirements to preserve endangered fishes as required in Forest Service <br />special use permits along the Okanagon in Washington State; and <br />. Releases fi'om Ruedi and Green Mountain Reservoirs to deliver water to endangered <br />fishes in the 15 mile reach on the Colorado River. <br /> <br />In addition, as the region contemplates increased demands on water, it will also be <br />important to rethink how much water is "necessary" to maintain existing water uses. <br />Most members of the conservation community believe that it is possible to free up <br />relatively large quantities of water for other uses fi'om conservation, starting with <br />municipal water use, which happens to represent the fastest growing new need for water <br />in the region. <br /> <br />For example, looking only at Colorado's Front Range communities, Facing Our Future <br />suggested that the following water could be fi'eed up exclusively by municipal water <br />conservation programs. The savings are consistent with the goals Mayor Hickenlooper <br />recently set for Denver in his State of the City speech earlier this month. The first <br />column in the chart below includes the 2004 Statewide Water Supply Initiative projected <br />gap for comparison purposes. All numbers are in acre-feet per year. <br /> <br /> SWSI Gap Indoor Use Outdoor Use <br />South Platte Basin 133,000 - 226,000 48,131-106,314 19,969 - 112,323 <br />Arkansas Basin 23,000 -72,000 10,920 - 23,910 4,711-26,501 <br /> <br />For agricultural water use, which still uses a large majority of the region's water, there <br />are also major technological advances that could result in significant water savings, some <br />of which could be used to restore sustainable stream flows. However, there technologies <br />are often beyond the financial capacity of agricultural water users. Farm Bill programs <br />have created some incentives for producers to install such technologies. In addition, <br />some states have made it possible for non-governmental organizations like Trout <br />Unlimited to pay for such efficiencies in exchange for being able to put the water in <br />stream on a temporary (30 year) basis. <br /> <br />4. What elements of a water policv appropriate to this re2:ion are necessarv to <br />protect water's ecolo2:ical value? <br /> <br />. Watershed-based management (as first suggested by John Wesley Powell); <br />. Water markets open for transactions that change diversionary uses to ecosystem <br />protection in the same way as such markets currently allow changes fi'om one <br />diversionary use to another; <br />. Implementation of "smart" water development principles, such as Facing Our Future <br />espouses [NOTE: see attached Appendix]; <br />. Implementation of CPR principles both to new and changed water facilities; <br />
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