Approved Minutes April 2008 CBRT

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HB OS-1177 permits basins to study and implement voluntary transfers between basins in Colorado, while reaffirming existing water rights and the prior appropriation system. It states in relevant part: 37-75-102. Water rights -protections. (1) It is the policy of the General Assembly that the current system of allocating water within Colorado shall not be superseded, abrogated, or otherwise impaired by this article. Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to repeal or in any manner amend the existing water rights adjudication system. The General Assembly affirms the State Constitution's recogiution of water rights as a private usufructuary property right, and this article is not intended to restrict the ability of the holder of a water right to use or to dispose of that water right in any manner permitted under Colorado law. HB 1177 has 5 stated goals: 1. Consumptive needs analysis 2. Non- Consumptive needs analysis 3. Water availability study 4. Solve the 20% gap 5. Public education of water issues facing Colorado In-stream flow. A flow rate appropriated by the Colorado Water Conservation Board which represents the amount of water deemed necessary to protect the environment to a reasonable degree. This determination takes into consideration the availability of water under water rights administered. An kZ-Stream Flow right is administered in priority, along with all other water rights on the stream. Maybell Pump Back: A proposal by the Northern Water Conservancy District to pump water from the Yampa River to the Eastern Slope. NCNA. Non consumptive needs assessment conducted pursuant to HB 1177 to determine the amount of water needed to meet environmental and recreational uses. Northern or NCWCD: The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the agency that contracts for delivery of water from the Colorado Big Thompson Project that diverts water from the Upper Colorado River at collection facilities in Grand County for distribution to the eastern slope. PHABSIM: Physical habitat simulation. A technique developed in the 1970s by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine optimal and critical river flows necessary to maintain healthy river ecosystems. A river site is first selected that has favorable fish habitat. At each selected site, river volumes are measured at ten transeets (a transect is a line across the river that is perpendicular to the river flow), at 3 different times during high, medium and low flows from early spring to late fall. A Habitat Suitability Curve is developed for each site that indicates critical flows below which fish habitat is imperiled. PBO: A Programmatic Biological Opinion for the Recovery of the Endangered Colorado River fish, which requires a number of measures which function as "reasonable and pn~dent alternatives" for diversions that would otherwise harm endangered fish in the Upper Colorado River. I:AInterbasin Compact Cominittee~Basin Roundtables\Colorado~Minutes~Approved Munrtes Apri12008 CBRT.doc 12 g~2~