Laserfiche WebLink
specialists who work full time on the instream flow program. Their activities are supported <br />by fisheries biologists and other specialists in the Division of Wildlife and by attorneys in <br />the Department of Law. The Board devotes a major portion of every meeting considering <br />proposed water development or management activities by others which could adversely <br />affect the instream flow decrees we hold for the benefit of the public and for the aquatic <br />environment. The Board takes the instream flow responsibility very seriously. <br />The Board will enforce and administer its existing decrees in the Piedra River <br />drainage. Those decrees include the entire 37 miles of the mainstem and 48 miles on 5 <br />tributaries. In the area proposed for designation, the Board's decree during the summer is <br />for 70 cubic feet per second for the lower 10 miles and 53 cubic feet per second for the <br />upper 7 miles in the second box canyon. Our seniority date is 1978. There are only four <br />conditional water rights upstream from the wilderness boundary which are senior to our <br />decrees. <br />The Board will reach an agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture to protect and <br />enforce instream flow decrees, and further, Board will, within the provisions of 37 -92- 102(3), <br />CRS, consider any recommendations for additional instream filings for wilderness purposes <br />or any other sources of water supply such as donations or purchases. <br />In those statements, contained in the Board's resolution, the Board recognizes and <br />accepts the unique responsibility described for it in S. 1029. The Board is gratified by the <br />3 <br />