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• Board Meeting Date: 1/23/2008
• Description: ISF Section - New Appropriation Recommendations in Water Divisions 1, 2, 5, and 6
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

forward on the remaining streams as a result of resource limitations, and the need for additional
stakeholder discourse and/or additional data collection and analysis. The following table
identifies the streams that will be brought back to the Board at a future date.

Division Stream Name County (ies) Recomm ender( s )*
2 Cucharas River Huerfano CD OW
2 Purgatoire River Las Animas CD OW
2 South Fork Purgatoire River Las Animas CD OW
5 Eagle River (rSF Increase) Eagle Town of Mintum, CDOW
5 Corral Creek (ISF Increase) Grand BLM
5 Troublesome Creek (lower segment) Grand BLM
5 Troublesome Creek (upper segment) Grand BLM
6 Indian Creek Jackson BLM
6 North Fork North Platte River Jackson BLM
6 South Fork Big Creek Jackson BLM
6 Piceance Creek Rio Blanco BLM, CD OW
6 Yellow Creek Rio Blanco BLM, CD OW

Technical Investigations

Staff's executive summary and technical analysis of each stream, contained in the Instream Flow
Recommendation Notebook (mailed separately), forms the basis for staffs recommendations.

Natural Environment Studies

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW), and Trout
Unlimited (TU) have conducted field surveys of the natural environment resources on these
streams and have found natural environments that can be preserved. To quantify the resources
and to evaluate instream flow requirements, the recommending entities have collected biologic
and hydraulic data that were analyzed by CWCB staff. Based on the results of these analyses,
staff prepared recommendations of the amount of water necessary to preserve the natural
environment to a reasonable degree for each of the streams listed on the attached Tabulations of
Instream Flow and Natural Lake Level Recommendations.

Water Availability Studies

Staff has conducted an evaluation of water availability for the streams listed. To determine the
amount of water physically available for the Board's appropriations, staff analyzed available
USGS gage records, available streamflow models, and/or utilized appropriate standard methods
to develop a hydro graph of mean monthly flows for each stream flow recommendation. Staff
also relied upon the flow measurements made as part of the field survey as an indicator of the
amount of water physically available in each stream; analyzed the water rights tabulation for
each stream; and has consulted with the Division Engineer's Office to identify any potential
water availability problems. Based upon its analyses, staff has determined that water is available
for appropriation on each stream to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree
without limiting or foreclosing the exercise of valid water rights.

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