25d ‎(2)‎

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

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Water users are concerned, however, that climate change could reduce the amount of water available in
future years and have begun preparing for reduced yields from Western Slope water rights.
The Colorado River Compact drew up obligations for the Upper Basin states during a wet historic period,
but flows have been lower in recent history. Climate models are predicting more frequent droughts than
contained in the historic record.
"What we're talking about is the last increment, whether it's Aaron Million's project or the Yampa pump-
back," said Jim Pokrandt, spokesman for the Colorado River district. "No one can say what that last
increment is."
The Colorado River District earlier this month cautioned the state against developing curtailment rules on
the Colorado River until the Western Slope water availability study is complete.
Sen. Jim Isgar-, D-Hesperus, is contemplating legislation next year that would protect senior water rights if
there were a call on the Colorado River. A call by Lower Basin states - Arizona, California and Nevada -
could curtail diversions and exports in Colorado, and Isgar said the state should be prepared to protect
existing water rights before allowing new projects to claim water.
Isgar said the water availability study is only the first step, and the information needs to be cranked into
criteria on how to manage future flows.
Million said that line of thinking is actually putting more pressure on Colorado's water system. Million's
request for a contract protects the Green River and has been scaled back to accommodate the Northern
district's Yampa project. Million said his project and the state's study of water availability can move
ahead at the same time.
WATER RIGHTS MAHING WAVES: A Western Slope lawmaker is considering legislation that
would give the state of Colorado authority over all future water rights.
State Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus and chairman of the Senate's Agriculture, Natural Resources and
Energy Committee, said Friday he might propose a bill in 2008 that would essentially place an asterisk on
water rights acquired in Colorado after the bill is signed into law. Such a bill would be intended to ensure
that state officials have the first priority to allocate Colorado water if storage levels in reservoirs such
as Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border and supplies water for more than 20 million
people in the Southwest drop below a certain level.
Isgar said the "No. 1 water right" in Colorado is the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which allocates water
to seven states in the Colorado River Basin and Mexico. The compact requires the Upper Basin states of
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico to send a designated amount of water 75 million acre-feet
during any 10-year period to the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.
Steamboat Springs' attorney Tom Sharp has served as a director of the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy
District since 1977 and chairs the Yampa/White roundtable group, which guides state water action and
funding in Northwest Colorado.
Sharp said Friday that '`given the drought conditions we have had over the last seven years, there has been
a heightened level of concern about the remaining water availability under the compact for Colorado."
But despite that concern, Sharp said a bill such as Isgar's would likely drive future water owners to
purchase older, unconditional water rights rather than new ones that the state could override.
Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming