SWSI Environment and Recreation Needs and Priorities TRT Draft

• Technical Roundtable: Recreation & Environment
• Title: SWSI - Environment and Recreation Needs and Priorities White Paper
• SWSI II - Doc Type: White Papers

Table 5 Summary of Suggestions for Determining Environmental and Recreational Needs

Environmental I I
and Recreational
Demand
Suggested by Component
Trout Unlimited - . Flow requirements for . USACE, Metropolitan Denver Water Supply ES, 1988.
sustaining physical stream
habitat and impacts that could
result from altered flow regimes
in various Metro Denver rivers
Trout Unlimited - . 1-day and 30-day, and 3-year . Contact plant operators or Colorado Pollution Elimination
low flows for stream reaches Discharge Permits for each discharger
below wastewater treatment
plant
Trout Unlimited - . Assessing instream flow needs . Various USFS EIS and Environmental Assessments -
for streams on National Forest Ex: Arapahoe Basin Master Development Plan Final EIS,
System Lands Prepared by the White River national Forest, Dillon
Ranger District, September 1999

1 Covington, J. Scott, and Wayne A. Hubert (2003). Trout Population Responses to Restoration of Streamflows. Environmental Management,
31 (1), 135-147.

5. Environmental and Recreational Options

Colorado's current and future environmental and recreational water needs bring a unique set of
issues to water management. As highlighted in Section 6.1.3 of the SWSI Report, a number of
new and innovative approaches to meeting environmental and recreational needs and moving
from mitigation to enhancement were discussed through the course of SWSI and the Basin
Roundtable Technical Meetings. However, to date, there is no single agreed upon approach or
set of criteria, other than the CWCB instream flow program, for prioritizing stream reaches for
environmental and recreational enhancement or setting associated flow goals.

Section 6 of the SWSI Report also provided background on existing flow goals and key
programs geared toward meeting environmental and recreational flows on major rivers and
tributaries in each basin. Many of the identified flow goals do not have an associated Identified
Project or Process to meet the goals, though some Identified Projects and Processes meet
multiple goals that can include environmental and recreational benefits.

Looking ahead, SWSI sought to further identify approaches and possible new projects or
management strategies - many of which are stand-alone, many of which could potentially be
integrated into multi-beneficiary projects - that could be used to address environmental and
recreational water needs. In this section, the key concepts guiding the development of future
environmental and recreational "options" are discussed along with some potential statewide
approaches to environmental and recreational flow enhancement. Section 10.3 of the SWSI
Report presents a basin-by-basin discussion of specific M&I, agricultural, and environmental
and recreational options that could be used to meet future needs.

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