20 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: ISF Section - Porposed Legislation Concerning the ISF Program
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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•COLOItADO WATER Txusr 11430 LnRIn1Ex ~rxEET, SUI-ns 300, DENVER, CO SOiOZ I TEL 72O.S70.2S97 FAX 303.99G.2O17 I WWW.COLORApOWATERT11U5T.0ltG
November 23, 2007
Colorado Water Coi'~servation Board
1313 Sherman Sheet, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 802Q3
Re: Proposed Instream Flow Program Legislation
Dear Colorado Water Conservation Board members:
The State of Colorado has a long history of recognizing the importance of insheam
water uses in addition to more traditional water uses. 'The placement of an instream flow
program in the hands of the Colorado Water Conservation Board ("CWCB") was the clearest
statement of that recognition. Su1ce the creation of the instream ,Flow program, all of us in
Colorado who care about water have had the opportunity to see instream flow uses fall
comfortably-with well-defined, decreed, adnnirustrable, and defensible parameters-into place
in Colorado s prior appropriation system. Among numerous other benefits, the instream flow
• program has much to Contribute to continuing Colorado's preeminence as the fishing and
recreation capital of the United States.
To accomplish the CWCB's mission to protect, maintain, and improve streamflows, the
instream flow program,has two important arrows in its quiver: (1) new appropriations; and (Z)
water right acquisitions. As most of you kno~T, nearly all of Colorado's river basins are over-
appropriated, leaving little room for the development of new, junior water rights. Those that
can be appropriated have water available to them infrequently and in inconsistent amounts.
Tlnis is so for any new; junior water right ii over-appxopriated stream systems, whether the
intended use is agricultural, municipal, industrial, or non-Consumptive. When water is
available to these new, junior water rights, ~vater is generally available to most water rights in
the system and, as a result, to the stream system .itself. These tunes--the times of plenty -are
not the times of crisis. We all know that the times of crisis are the shortages. During times of
shortage, junior water rights areri t satisfied. Yet; times of shortage are the most critical times
for Colorado's riverine ecosystems. •
With drought as an increasing limitation on the efficacy of new instream flow
appropriations, it has become critically important to focus on the second arrow in the CWCB's
- quiver: acquisitions. Acquisitions are an extremely important mechanism to allow the CWCB to
continue protecting, maintaining, and improving streamflows in critical areas of the state. The
acquisitions program has at least two benefits that are not available to the appropriations
program. First, the acquisitions program matches willing sellers (the current water right
lnolder) with a willing buyer (the CWCB). As a result, it represents amarket-based approach to
protection of sheamflow levels. Second, it provides the CWCB with access to more senior water