Agenda Item 20b: Colorado River Issues, Endangered Species Issues

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The FWS still wants to look at 20,000 acre -foot increments for future depletions, without making any commitment now concerning the 100,000 - 120,000 acre -foot expectation which has been discussed by the 15 -Mile Reach Strategy Workgroup. If the new depletions identified for the 1992 -1995 water years are significant, this may affect the size of the future development increment which the FWS would be willing to consult on at this time. We agreed that the next revised CRDSS hydrology output will be provided to the 15 -Mile Reach Strategy Workgroup by the end of May for its review. During June, 1997, we will engage in an iterative review and refinement of that CRDSS output, adding the benefit of RIPRAP items and any necessary adjustment for the 1992 -1995 water years. We will also need to agree on the size and shape of the future development increments that will be evaluated. On this basis, we expect to have a finished product ready for FWS use by the end of July, 1997. The FWS still projects that they can get the biological opinion completed within 45 days, resulting in a mid- to late- September target for a first draft of the 15 -Mile Reach Biological Opinion. April 17, 1997, Meeting At the April 17, 1997, meeting of the 15 -Mile Reach Strategy Workgroup, we made continued progress on both the technical issues related to CRDSS modeling and on the conceptual issues related to the "working proposal" and "basic tenets." We reviewed the March 7, 1997, summary report from the Technical Subcommittee. With respect to the distribution of a carve out (item number 1 in the summary), questions were raised regarding the way in which the Shoshone call is modeled. The CWCB staff agreed to provide answers to that question, and George Smith agreed to provide copies of the transparencies which are described in the technical committee report. With respect to current depletions (item number 2), we are still expecting water users to work directly with CWCB staff to estimate new depletions during the 1992 -1995 water years, and then to provide documentation for review with the Technical Subcommittee. The relationship between the FWS baseline and CRDSS model input was reviewed. It was agreed that the existing depletions included within the Calculated (C) Scenario of CRDSS be used as the starting point in the Programmatic Biological Opinion modeling. Issues between the FWS baseline and the C Scenario in CRDSS have not been resolved, however. The CWCB has recently received a letter from oil shale interests expressing concern about the protection of their water rights and the potential modeling assumption that their projects are not likely to develop within the next 10 -25 years. (See attached letter.) Rather than get bogged down in debate over who is included in the FWS baseline, the Workgroup and FWS have agreed on taking an incremental approach as previously mentioned. Questions were also raised about the way in which Green Mountain, Ruedi and Wolford Mountain Reservoir contracts will be modeled. The CWCB staff will review this, and the 15 -Mile Reach Strategy Workgroup can pursue this