8089

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8089
• Author: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
• Title: Final Environmental Assessment Gunnison River Activities, Passageway Around the Redlands Diversion Dam and Interim Agreement to Provide Water for Endangered Fish.
• USFW Year: 1995.
• USFW - Doc Type: Grand Junction, Colorado.
• Copyright Material: NO

measure progress toward recovery. As timeframes are met, water development will continue.
Reclamation serves as the lead agency in implementing construction projects and water
acquisition activities under the RIPRAP. Restoring passage for endangered fish to historic
habitat in the Gunnison River and providing water to critical habitat for the fish have been
identified as two high priority tasks in the RIPRAP. Accomplishing these tasks will provide a
measurable increase in suitable habitat available to endangered fish and will constitute significant
progress toward recovery of the Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker.
Gunnison River
The Gunnison River originates in west central Colorado at the junction of the Fast and Taylor
Rivers in Gunnison County. From there, it flows 25 miles into Blue Mesa Reservoir, one of
three reservoirs comprising the Aspinall Unit. Downstream from the reservoirs, the river flows
approximately 110 miles to its confluence with the Colorado River at Grand Junction.
The Redlands Diversion Dam is a privately owned and operated structure located on the
Gunnison River 2.3 miles upstream from the confluence with the Colorado River (frontispiece
map). The Redlands Water and Power Company (RWPC) constructed the diversion dam in
1918 and has since modernized and upgraded it. The concrete dam is 8.5 feet high and consists
of a 312-foot-long spillway with a 6-foot-wide crest and two 10-foot-wide by 6-foot-high sluice
gates. A flow of 750 cubic feet per second (cfs) is diverted through four 14-foot-wide headgates
on the west side into the Redlands Canal. This flow is used for irrigation water and
hydroelectric power generation. In 1983, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
exempted the Redlands Water and Power Company from licensing under FERC regulations.
This exemption required that fish passage be allowed around the dam.
Many existing water projects and related activities are in place and new developments are being
considered for the Gunnison River Basin. There are more than 5,000 direct diversion decrees
presently in use on the Gunnison River. In addition to water rights for these direct diversions,
there are water storage rights; with the largest single developed storage right being the 939,206
acre-foot decree (plus a refill decree of 122,702 acre-feet) for Blue Mesa Reservoir of the
Aspinall Unit. Major existing projects upstream from the Redlands Diversion Dam site include:
the Uncompahgre Project which diverts over 300,000 acre-feet of water from the Gunnison
River for irrigation and the Aspinall Unit which stores water in Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and
Crystal Reservoirs for conservation and beneficial use, flood control, fish and wildlife,
recreation, and hydropower. Smaller Reclamation projects include the Paonia, Smith Fork,
Dallas Creek, Bostwick Park, and Fruitgrowers Projects. Projects such as the Uncompahgre
Project and the Redlands Diversion Dam have very senior water rights.
Under the Colorado River Salinity Control Program, Reclamation and the Uncompahgre Valley
Water Users Association have discontinued winter stock water flows through canals and laterals
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