Minutes Sep 2007 CBRT

• Basin Roundtable: Colorado
• Title: September Meeting Minutes
• Date: 9/24/2007
• Basin Roundtables - Doc Type: Minutes

Upper Basin States (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico) to limit diversions from the
Colorado River and its tributaries. No Compact Call has ever been made. The Colorado River
Compact is the 1922 agreement among the Colorado Basin States, and ratified by Congress in
1929. It was based upon an assumption that the average amlual flow in the Colorado River at Lee
Ferry is at least 15 nullion acre feet (mafj, and that the Upper and Lower Basins would each
receive 7.5 maf, to be divided among the Basins as they agreed. The 1922 agreement was
predicated upon a concern that development in California was outpacing development in every
other Western state, and that California would appropriate most Colorado River water unless
changes were implemented to recognize the rights of each state to develop a certain amount of
water in their own time frame.
Conditional water ri 1.~ lts. Water rights that are not yet developed, but represent an intent to
develop for a specific purpose in the future. They establish a priority date over later granted water
rights.
Endangered Fish Recovery Program. Four fish, the Colorado pikeminnow, Razorback sucker,
Humpback chub, and Bonytail, are listed as endangered species; they reside in the Colorado,
Yampa-Wlute, and Green Rivers.
Green River Pumpback: A proposal by Aaron Million to divert water from the Flaming Gorge
Reservoir on the Green River and pump it east along Interstate 80 and then south along Interstate
25 to the Front Range.
House Bill 1177: Passed in 2005 by the Colorado legislature, this sets up nine roundtables around
in the following drainages to discuss how to meet the water demands by year 2030:
Western Slope Eastern Slope
Colorado Arkansas
Yampa-White Rio Grande
Gunnison North Platte
San Juan South Platte
Denver Metro
HB OS-1177 permits basins to study and implement voluntary transfers between basins in
Colorado, while reaffirming existing water rights and the prior appropriation system. It states in
relevant part:
37-75-102. Water rights -protections. (1) It is the policy of the General Assembly that the
current system of allocating water within Colorado shall not be superseded, abrogated, or
otherwise impaired by this article. Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to repeal or in any
manner amend the existing water rights adjudication system. The General Assembly affirms the
State Constitution's recognition of water rights as a private usufn~ctuary property right, and this
article is not intended to restrict the ability of the holder of a water right to use or to dispose of
that water right in any manner permitted under Colorado law.
In-stream flow. A flow rate appropriated by the Colorado Water Conservation Board which
represents the amount of water deemed necessary to protect the enviroiu7lent to a reasonable
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