7425

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7425
• Author: Vandas, S. e. a.
• Title: Dolores River Instream Flow Assessment
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: Project Report.
• Copyright Material: NO

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Dolores River Instream Flow
Assessment Project are to:

1. Detennine the physical and legal availability
of water for management purposes;

2. Develop relationships between streamflow and
river resource values and evaluate the flow
levels required to maintain those values; and

3. Identify and evaluate flow protection strategies
and relate "protection realities" to manage-
ment issues and goals.

In addressing the project objectives during the
preassessment phase, several key assumptions and
conditions emerged which complicate the water
rights assessment:

1. The completion and filling of McPhee
Reservoir have changed the pre-dam flow
regime of the Dolores River below the dam.

2. The lower reach of the river (from Little
Gypsum Creek 'to Bedrock) is within a
Wilderness Study Area that has been recom-
mended for wilderness designation.

3. Portions of the Dolores River corridor have
been recommended for wild, scenic, and
recreational designation under the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The project team incorporated these assumptions and
conditions into the assessment.

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