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• Board Meeting Date: 5/20/2008
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

DOLORES RIVER DIALOGUE UPDATE -The DRD's field science activity for spring 2008 will
be driven by the opportunity for managed spill releases. In spite of declines in anticipated run-off, the
Dolores Water Conservancy District is working with the Bureau of Reclamation, with input from the Spill
Committee, to provide for a week of peak releases of 2,000 to 2,500 cfs in May for the ecological benefit
of the channel and as a focal point for spring 2008 field science activity. There are uncertainties as to
when peak inflows will come, the degree to which the desired releases can be managed (given emerging
reservoir levels), and the challenge of mobilizing science work with the limited notice resulting from
these uncertainties. The one certainty is that McPhee Reservoir must be full when the spill ends.
To date, three DRD science objectives have been advanced:
In March, warm water fish spawning flows were released to mimic the natural hydrograph
ranging from 70 cfs to 917 cfs, except fora 4 day period of flows approximating 50 cfs to
facilitate channel surveys in Reach 1 by CDOW and Trout Unlimited.
April built on March spawning flows with rafting flows ranging from 800 cfs to 1300 cfs with
four days of flows reduced to 500 cfs to facilitate CDOW fish surveys.
As of April 14, the Slick Rock stream gage was installed, allowing the DRD to correlate McPhee
releases with low snow and tributary inflows.
In conjunction with peak flows planned for the May peak:
• CDOW hydrologist, TU biologist and Dolores District Engineer will work with pre, peak and
post-spill channel surveys to evaluate responses and future opportunities for improving the trout
fishery during managed spill events in Reach 1 below McPhee Reservoir.
• An entomologist will conduct pre and post spill nutrient monitoring below McPhee dam and
coordinate with CDOW biologists to evaluate nutrient conditions and set a baseline to evaluate
future releases from different levels of the outlet works and in-channel restoration options.
• At Big Gyp field site, a Fort Lewis College biology professor will bring a field ecology class for a
second season of baseline monitoring to compare response to the 2008 spill to previous
monitoring during the non-spill year of 2006. Data collection will continue using 100 randomly
selected points established in 2007 and permanent transects. Tamarisk will be removed from
another experimental site, and ecological responses will be evaluated at previous removal areas.
• Work will be undertaken in analyzing policy alternatives to the Wild and Scenic River
designation for the lower Dolores in the Draft San Juan Forest/BLM Plan Revision. The Draft
Plan invites participation of the DRD in exploring alternatives, which will be advanced by
working with the FS/BLM District Manager to update the Dolores River Management Plan that
was adopted in 1990. DRD science and the full range of CWCB policy tools will be considered
in this process.
CWCB funding and staff support have been instrumental in all of the above efforts. (Linda Bassi)
UPDATE ON TACOMA POWER PLANT RELICENSING PROCESS -The Public Service
Company of Colorado dlbla Xcel Energy is in the process of relicensing its Tacoma Hydroelectric Project
before FERC. The Tacoma Project is located on Cascade Creek and the Animas River just north of
Durango. Xcel owns the water rights to divert the flows of Cascade Creek into a conduit that then
delivers those flows to the Little Cascade Creek watershed, and hence into Electra Lake. From Electra
Lake, the water is diverted into a penstock to the Tacoma Powerhouse in the Animas River canyon. The
relicensing process, which started in July 2004, is scheduled for completion in February 2010. An
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