Summary of Yampa River Basin Operation & Management Plan Work Group Meeting

• Description: Yampa Technical Workgroup
• State: CO
• State: UT
• State: WY
• Basin: Yampa/White/Green
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 8/30/1995
• Author: Yampa River Basin Operation and Management Plan Work Group, Ray Tenney
• Title: Summary of Yampa River Basin Operation & Management Plan Work Group Meeting
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

SUMMARY
of the
AUGUST 30, 1995 MEETING
of the
YAMPA RIVER BASIN OPERATION & MANAGEMENT PLAN WORK GROUP
See attached list of attendees.
The CWCB Physical Water Availability Study has been finalized without any significant
change.
The Compact Development Work Group report has been finalized. The recommended
technical peer review workshop has been conducted. No revisions of the recommendations of
the CDWG were made.
. The CWCB will be holding a special board meeting OCTOBER 10, 1995 (note the date
change) in Craig for the purpose of collecting basin -wide input on the instream flow filings.
The CWCB's process of making an instream flow was discussed. The CWCB plans to
give the preliminary notice of the proposed filing on the Yampa River at the October 10th special
board meeting. The preliminary notice will be very general in nature as the Board has not
determined yet the amount of water to be protected (or reserved for development) and the method
of instream flow protection for the Yampa River Basin. These items will be determined based
on further analysis and input by this work group and the public.
The current notion of the filing for the Yampa River was discussed. The initial
recommendation by the CWCB is that the lower level of development reservation (51,772 AF for
the Yampa River Basin) be excluded from the instream flow filing. An additional increment of
development reservation must be recognized by the instream flow under the "modifiable" portion.
This work group suggested another 50,000 AF of development opportunity be reserved in the
Yampa River Basin under the modifiable portion of the water right. This amount requires further
local discussion and consideration of Colorado's compact obligations.
The analyses in the mailing for the August 30, 1995 meeting were discussed. Generally,
the handouts show that the development reservations need to reflect the shift of demands to
periods when water is physically available. The analyses in the handouts are gross in nature and
do not include many subtle issues but illustrate the general points. Additional refinements are
on- going.
The Yampa group seemed to believe that Option IIb would be best for flow protection
in the Yampa River Basin. Staff will work to analyze the amount of storage necessary to
facilitate the appropriate lebels of development.