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<br />deliver more water than they currently use. Therefore, determining water utilities' <br />reasonably certain available supply will be an important task for the SWSI analysis. Is it <br />your intent to include these available supplies as part of your ~r.short term" alternatives <br />that are applied to the gap? Whether these supplies are included as short-term <br />alternatives or are factored in under the original definition of the gap, they must be <br />considered or the resulting gap will be exaggerated. <br /> <br />(4) Environmental needs. As a roundtable member, I have struggled witJI how to <br />help you in characterizing environmental needs for the South Platte basin given the lack <br />of resources under SWSI that have been committed to the issue. I h-ave previously <br />provided some flow reports and a listing of streams of concern for which instream flow <br />protection should be addressed, and with this memo I am attaching the Colorado Water <br />Trust map and list as an additional resource for identifying key reaches. However, these <br />sources either provide only a listing of streams of concern without defined flow <br />quantities, or provide flow targets but only for a small subset of the total area of concern. <br /> <br />A colleague recently suggested a broader framework for looking at environmental flow <br />needs under SWSI and I think it offers a sOWld means of addressing the issue given the <br />lack of resources you have for environmental demand assessment. The basic framework <br />is to "conserve, protect, and restore" Colorado rivers. For healthy rivers, focus should be <br />on conserving their values - for example, through CWCB instream flow appropriations. <br />For rivers that are in acceptable condition but face risks from new developmen~, focus <br />should be on protecting their values .... ensuring that the new developments are <br />constrUcted and operated in a fashion consist~t with maintaining the river's <br />environmental values. For rivers that are already suffering from dewatering, the focus <br />should be on restoring their values - through eWeB instream flow acquisitions, project <br />re-operations to improve flows, etc. This framework can be applied to streams that are <br />identified as priorities (e.g.~ 'conserve' alternatives for existing Gold Medal stream <br />reaches, 'restore' alternatives for water-short reaches) and can be applied in conjunction <br />with other alternatives (e.g., 'protect' and 'restore' alternatives integrated with other <br />short- medium- or long- term projects identified under SWSI). <br /> <br />I've attached a description of the Conserve Protect Restore framework, with ideas on the <br />reaches it would apply to and the str~tegies that could be used in addressing the gap <br />between environmental water demand and supply. <br /> <br />(5) "Smart Supply/Smart Storage" criteria. I~ve attached with this memo a set of <br />criteria that have been developed for "smart supply' water development. Insofar as <br />projects or alternatives incorporate the smart supply approach, they are likely to enjoy <br />broader support from conservation interests. <br />