25d ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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territorial interests, rather than looking for statewide solutions.
"These guys need to stand up like men and stop going around behind the scenes trying to stop this
project," Million said. "They need to look beyond their salaries and do what's best for the state."
Flaming Gorge stores up to 3.8 million acre-feet of water for the benefit of Upper Basin states -
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming - under the Colorado Compact.
However, with uncertainty about how much water is available in the system, other water users in the state
have taken measures to oppose, or at least stall, Million's project.
The first protest came in July from the Colorado River Conservation District, an association of Western
Slope counties formed in 1937.
The district wrote the Bureau of Reclamation in opposition of Million's contract, pending the completion
of several studies, including: a study of water availability by the Colorado Water Conservation Board,
authorized under this year's water projects bill and expected to be done in 2009; the needs assessment by
four basin roundtables on the Western Slope; completion of the CWCB Statewide Water Supply Initiative
analysis of energy needs on the Western Slope; agreement of priority and curtailment criteria; and federal
evaluation of water availability at Flaming Gorge.
The Colorado District's letter, signed by General Manager Eric Kuhn, also stated, however: "In
considering the project proposed by Mr. Million, the board (specifically) recognized and acknowledged
that it minimized adverse impacts to stream flows in the headwaters of the Colorado River basin."
A second letter followed in August from Eric Wilkinson, general manager of the Northern Colorado
Water Conservancy District, which is investigating atrans-basin pipeline from the Yampa River.
The letter was written in conjunction with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Denver
Water, Aurora, Colorado Springs Utilities and the Pueblo Board of Water Works.
The boards of those groups were not active in drafting the letter.
"It was done at the staff level," said Alan Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo water board.
The group, a roster of the state's largest municipal water interests, has common interests in the diversion
of water from the Colorado River basin to the Front Range.
The letter raised three concerns about Million's contract:
The contract should not diminish flows available to the Upper Basin states to meet compact
obligations.
The states affected by the contract need to agree on how the contract would be administered in a
shortage.
The project is speculative because it does not identify vvho would put the water to beneficial use.
Flaming Gorge is subject to the effects of drought, like other reservoirs, but has generally remained above
3 million acre-feet since it filled in the early 1970s. It dropped to about 2 million acre-feet in 1977, taking
several years to recover, and to about 2.5 million acre-feet in 2002. Despite below-average inflows the
past few years, it is slightly above 3 million acre-feet this year.
Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming