Gunnison Basin Water: No Panacea for the Front Range

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The Gunnison: A Basin In Balance The Bureau has agreed to release sufficient water to maintain a 300 cfs mini- mum in-stream flow from July through October between the Redlands diversion and the confluence of the Gunnison River with the Colorado River.55 This minimum flow was deemed necessary to make the fish ladder functional. These flows appear to be getting results. Many pike minnow have used the ladder since its construction and several razorback suckers, recently re-introduced into the river above the ladder, made it over the dam, into the lower Gunnison River, and back up the ladder in 2001,56 Severe drought conditions in 2002 led to a failure to meet these target flow levels. As part of an agreement to share water shortages,57 the minimum flows were: June 200 cfs July 250 cfs August 250 cfs September 100 cfs October 0 cfs It is unclear what impact these shortages (and a continued drought) will have on species' recovery. In any event, the underlying agreements permitting the sharing of shortages expires in 2005. 3. Hydropower The dams of the Aspinall Unit generate significant hydroelectricity:58 Blue Mesa 96 megawatts Morrow Point 165 megawatts Crystal Dam 28 megawatts The Aspinall Unit's net generation for fiscal year 2000 was 819 GigaWatt- hours (GWh).59 Sales of thi§ power generated over $15 million.s° Replacement power-the true measure of the "worth" of Aspinall generation-could cost consider- ably more than $15 million, especially during an energy crunch. Moreover, we note that the $15 million does not include the additional value Gunnison water has as a major component of the flow of the Colorado River, where it generates additional hydropower at other federal dams downstream. Since CRSPA was passed in 1956, the Colorado Supreme Court has interpreted provisions of the statute in at least two important ways. First, although CRSPA states hydropower is an "incident" of satisfying other project purposes, at the Aspinall Unit, hydropower generation has been identified as a"primary" purpose because of its important contribution to the economic feasibility of the Unit.s' Second, while CRSPA states that hydroelectric power at Aspinall is subordinate to "domestic and irrigation uses," the Supreme Court has confirmed a Water Judge's ruling that this subordination applies only on an inter-state basis, so that hydropower uses of Gunnison Basin Water 0 13 0