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<br />e <br /> <br />000281 <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />Reclamation, Eastern Colorado Area Office, dated June 17, 2002 (CEC No. 02- <br />31 "); Environmental Assessment for Agreement to Offset HUP Shortages at <br />Green Mountain Reservoir, August 2002 ("EA"). However, due to drought <br />conditions and decreased inflows to Green Mountain Reservoir, Reclamation also <br />declared that there would be no water available for release from the West Slope <br />contract pool for the July I, 2002 - June 30, 2003 contract year. CEC No. 02-31; <br />EA. <br /> <br />25. Reclamation thereafter announced that drawing down Green Mountain Reservoir <br />to the dead storage pool of approximately 7,000 acre feet, could destabilize the <br />slopes of the Reservoir, and reactivate a landslide near the Town of Heeney, <br />Colorado, which is located along the west side of Green Mountain Reservoir. <br /> <br />26. Reclamation informed Petitioners that it intended to artificially increase the <br />Green Mountain Reservoir dead storage by 20,000 acre feet, and to maintain a <br />27,000 acre foot dead storage pool in the Reservoir, as a means of stabilizing the <br />slopes and reducing the risk of a landslide, thus implementing the Heeney Slide <br />Restriction. CEC No. 02-31. <br /> <br />27. Reclamation unilaterally allocated the entire 20,000 acre foot reduction in active <br />storage capacity to the HUP and none of the decreased capacity to the <br />replacement pool. EA; CEC No. 02-31. Reclamation declared that it would <br />curtail releases of water stored in the HUP by at least 20,000 acre feet in 2002. <br />Although it was anticipated that not all of the water in the 52,000 acre foot <br />replacement pool would be needed to replace C-BT Project diversions to the East <br />Slope, Reclamation refused to make available the excess water in the <br />replacement pool to fulfill the urgent requirements ofHUP water users. <br />Reclamation also indicated for the first time that the unusable storage capacity in <br />the Green Mountain Reservoir dead pool would be allocated entirely to the HUP, <br />reducing even further the usable stored water available to HUP beneficiaries. <br />EA; CEC No. 02-31. <br /> <br />28. Petitioners protested Reclamation's decision, both orally and by letters dated <br />July 17, 2002 and October 25, 2002, asserting that their rights pursuant to Senate <br />Document 80 and the Blue River Decree had been violated. The immediate <br />adverse impact of Reclamation's decision was avoided for the 2002 growing <br />season through a series of temporary arrangements. First, water from Ruedi <br />Reservoir, located on the Fryingpan River, a tributary of the Roaring Fork River, <br />was made available pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement among <br />Reclamation, the River District and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy <br />District C"Northern"), the East Slope beneficiary ofthe C-BT Project. Second, <br />other owners of contract water in Ruedi Reservoir made this water available to <br />the River District. Third, water in Green Mountain Reservoir allocated to the <br />Silt Project, but not needed by that project in 2002, was made available. Finally, <br />water in the replacement pool not needed during 2002 for replacement of C-BT <br />Project water diverted to the East Slope was made available by Northern to <br />substitute for HUP water previously assigned by Reclamation to the newly <br /> <br />10 <br />