8014

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8014
• Author: McDonald, W. J.
• Title: The Upper Basins' Political Conundrum
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: A Deal is Not a Deal.
• Copyright Material: NO

The Upper Basins' Political Conundrum: A Deal is Not a Deal
• While the Fontenelle Dam and Reservoir of the Seedskadee
participating project were constructed on the Green River in Wyoming,
the irrigation delivery system for which the project called never was
built.
Finally, even if constructed, the originally intended benefits of some projects
in the Upper Division States are not being, or may not be, realized. This has
occurred principally because of efforts required by law, or undertaken in the
discretion of federal agencies, to address environmental concerns not foreseen
at the time the historical deals were put together. Foremost among these are
probably the requirements of the Endangered Species Act95 with respect to
threatened and endangered fish species native to the Colorado River and its
tributaries. Since these matters are being addressed at some length in the
basin study of the Colorado River being done for the Western Water Policy
Review Advisory Commission by another author, a few brief examples will
suffice for the purposes of this paper.
In terms of the impacts of endangered fish species, a good example would be
the situation at Ruedi Reservoir, which is the western Colorado storage
feature of the transcontinental Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. The full yield of
this reservoir may not be available for beneficial consumptive use in the
future due to instream flow requirements for endangered fish species
downstream from the reservoir.96 On the other hand, it must be
acknowledged that the oil shale industry and other growth upon which the
need for this reservoir was premised have not developed as anticipated and
the contemporary use of a portion of the reservoir's yield for instream flows
has been negotiated (some would say under duress) by the State of Colorado
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Reductions in project yield for originally intended irrigation uses have also
occurred. One example would be the reduction in irrigation supplies from the
Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project, referred to above. Another
example would be the recent controversies at the Dolores Project in Colorado.
Here, environmental interests desire to devote more of the reservoir's yield,
potentially at the expense of the water available for irrigation and municipal
as Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.CA. §§ 1531-43 (1985 & Supp. 1997).
~ UPPER COLORADO RIVER COMMISSION, supra note 33, at 44.
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