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<br />quantify a reserved water right for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park located <br />downstream from the Aspinall Unit). <br /> <br />Alternative operation modes, ranging from placing limitations on bypasses to fully using all of the <br />Aspinall Unit bypasses and spillways, were analyzed to see to what degree the t10w <br />recommendations could be met. Model runs assume the draft t10w recommendations have <br />priority over storage and release of Aspinall Unit water. Modeling the recommendations as a <br />priority illustrates impacts of meeting recommended t1ows. <br /> <br />The Aspinall Unit is not a project in the traditional sense of other Reclamation projects where all <br />project storage water is dedicated solely to specific uses such irrigation. Storage water used in <br />modeling t10w recommendations is not currently allocated to a specific use. In addition, the <br />Colorado River Storage Project has no traditional water user repayment entity, however, CRSP <br />has fish and wildlife uses included in its legislative authorization. Legislation authorized the Unit <br />to be built for a variety of uses, including the development of Colorado's compact entitlement and <br />fish and wildlife purposes. Previous biological opinions on the Dolores and Dallas Creek projects <br />depend on operation of the Aspinall Unit to offset their depletion impacts to the Colorado River <br />up to 148,000 acre-feet. <br /> <br />Reclamation modeled a combination of natural t10ws and releases of Aspinall Unit storage to <br />assist in meeting the draft t10w recommendations. The measuring point to determine if t10w <br />recommendations are met is the Gunnison River gage near Grand Junction, Colorado (Whitewater <br />gage). This gage is located 80 miles downstream from Crystal Dam-the furthest downstream of <br />the Aspinall Unitdams. Significant tributaries such as the North Fork of the Gunnison and the <br />Uncompahgre rivers enter the Gunnison between Crystal and the Whitewater gage. Model runs <br />attempt to meet t10w recommendations using a combination of Aspinall Unit releases and <br />downstream tributary int1ow, Another measuring point is the Gunnison River gage downstream <br />from the Redlands Diversion Dam. This gage is located approximately 2 miles upstream from the <br />cont1uence with the Colorado River. <br /> <br />The model is not a water rights model; therefore, it does not evaluate the existing and future water <br />rights on the Gunnison River. This report does not analyze effects ofNPS reserved right <br />proposed flows; however, there is a section which compares NPS proposed flows and draft fish <br />flow recommendations to give an overview of potential similarities and differences. <br /> <br />The model results show that draft t10w recommendations can only partially be met under current <br />Aspinall Unit operating criteria and outlet capacities. <br /> <br />Under the baseline run, the draft fish flow recommendation peaks could be met approximately 19 <br />percent of the time; with model runs intended to meet the desired peaks, this could be increased to <br />50-58 percent of the time2. The reason the model did not meet the recommended peaks more is <br />the difficulty in matching the timing of downstream tributary peaks. This would continue to be an <br /> <br />2F or purposes of this report, peaks are assumed met if 90 percent of a peak flow is <br />reached. <br /> <br />1ll <br />