9356

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9356
• Author: Wigington, R.
• Title: Water Right Marketing Strategies to Protect Instream Flows in Colorado.
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

The pending agreement for the 300 cfs instream water rights
features the following accommodations:
1. It recognizes that irrigation diversions under the
senior water right for the Gunnison Tunnel can be increased, but
that such increases will be limited to the historic pattern and
duration of the irrigation season and that the Water Users can
generate hydropower at the same time that they are making these
irrigation diversions. The instream right for 300 cfs then takes
priority ahead of the junior water rights for hydropower at the
Gunnison Tunnel after the stipulated increases for irrigation
purposes.
2. Except for any other water rights which The Nature
Conservancy may acquire from the Pittsburg and Midway Company,
the agreement leaves open the question of whether other purchased
or donated water rights with priorities senior to the hydropower
rights at the Gunnison Tunnel can be stacked on top of the 300
cfs water right. The question of whether purchased or donated
water rights can be stacked for instream use probably depends on
whether the upstream draft of these water rights was or could be
cumulative prior to their change to instream use. For example,
irrigation water rights that were directly across from each other
on a stream might be stacked for instream use, while hydropower
water rights that were one above the other on a stream where the
return flow from the upstream water right would make water
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