8056

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8056
• Author: Hamill, J.
• Title: Restoring and Protecting Instream Flows for Endangered Fish in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: Denver, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

Instream Flow Acquisition, Appropriation, and Protection

The Recovery Program relies upon state in stream flow programs and
laws to provide for legal protection of instream flows. Water
rights will only be acquired from willing sellers and
administered pursuant to state law. The Conservation Board is
expected to file for a 581 cfs appropriation in the 15-mile reach
of the Colorado River in the fall of 1992. In addition the
Service has entered into a short-term agreement to purchase
approximately 2,000 acre-feet of water from Steamboat Lake to
enhance late summer/early fall flows in the Yampa River. A
proposal also is being evaluated to acquire the Juniper-Cross
Mountain water rights on the Yampa River for instream flows.
These water rights, if acquired, would protect the natural flow
regime of the Yampa River, which is considered critical to the
survival and recovery of the razorbacks and other endangered fish
in the Green River basin.

However, to date, efforts to acquire and appropriate water or
water rights for the endangered fish have proceeded slowly. To
expedite water acquisition and flow protection activities in
Colorado, several facilitated meetings were held with members of
the Recovery Program. These meetings focused on resolving the
legal, institutional, and policy issues which were identified as
impediments to timely and effective instream flow protection for
the endangered fish. Some of the specific issues/questions that
were identified included:

1. How does the State of Colorado proceed with protecting
instream flows for the endangered fish in light of the
uncertainty about how it will develop its entitlement
under the~nterstate ~mpacts of 1922 and 1948. A
fundamental pretext of the Recovery Program is that
instream flow protection is to be accomplished "in a
manner that does not disrupt state water rights systems,
interstate compacts and decrees that allocate rights to
use Colorado River water among the states." This coupled
with the fact that instream flow appropriations are
prohibited "from depriving the people of the State of
Colorado from water available pursuant to interstate
compacts," apparently puts limits on the amount of water
available for instream flows to recover the fish. A
fundamental question is how much water from each major
tributary of the Colorado River needs to be delivered for

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