Basin Issues February 1998

• Description: Basin Issues February 1998. Various colorado basins, issues, data, budgets and meetings.
• State: CO
• Date: 2/1/1998
• Title: Basin Issues February 1998
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

Razorback Sucker Listing and Recovery Plan — The USFWS has developed a draft
recovery plan with comments due January 5, 1998. Staff needs to participate in this process to
make sure the plan contains measurable recovery goals and reasonable implementation schedules.
Furthermore, the recovery efforts need to be consistent with the current recovery goals and plans
for the other endangered Colorado River fishes.
GVIC Fish Ladder — The EA and FONSI for the project were completed in 1997. Access and
mitigation agreements have been secured and a new bridge is being constructed over the "Check
Canal." that will provided access to the diversion dam. Construction of the ladder was completed
in late 1997 and it is ready for use in 1998.
Endangered Fish Flow Protection - Among the efforts to implement the Recovery Program
"recovery action plan," which we helped develop, the CWCB has filed four water rights
applications for the "15 -Mile Reach" of the Colorado River (between Palisade and Grand
Junction). One would protect 581 cfs of flow in the reach during July, August and September,
another 300 cfs of accretions to the reach during July, August and September, a third specified
baseflow levels on a year -round basis, and the last all remaining flows after a carve out of
100,000 of has been developed. The carve out could be increased by up to an additional 300,000
AF under certain conditions.
Grand Valley Water Management Project - Improvement of the Grand Valley
Government Highline Canal was identified by the Recovery Program as one of the best
opportunities to increase flows available for recovery of the endangered fish in the 15 -Mile Reach
without adverse impact to existing uses of water and without injury to water rights. This canal,
which was built by the Bureau of Reclamation between 1912 -17, is approximately 50 miles long
and delivers water to approximately 1400 water users in Mesa County (approximately 23,340
irrigated acres).
The canal is operated as a "flow through" system because it has no regulating capacity which
results in administrative spills of approximately 60,000 AF of water on an average annual basis.
The Recovery Program has proposed to invest approximately $8.5 million to install and operate a
set of "check structures" at strategic points along the canal and a pump at the Highline Lake to
reduce or recover approximately 28,500 AF of spilled water annually. To the extent that these
improvements reduce the Grand Valley Project's reliance upon releases of water from the Green
Mountain Reservoir, larger and more frequent surplus storage conditions at Green Mountain
Reservoir are anticipated and we are exploring options for delivering that additional storage water
to enhance fish recovery flows in the 15 -Mile Reach in accordance with state and federal law and
existing water rights. Settlement of the Orchard Mesa Check Case was a major part of the overall
strategy for accomplishing this goal. The successful negotiation of a Surplus Water Agreement
between USBR, the Grand Valley Water Users' Association, the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District
and the Public Service Company of Colorado is another key part of the strategy. Negotiation of
this agreement is scheduled to start in January, 1998.
Ruedi Reservoir - The Recovery Program for the Upper Colorado River Basin is looking to a
portion of the Ruedi Reservoir storage as a source of water to augment fish recovery flows in the
15 -Mile Reach. This is because there is approximately 21,650 AF of "uncommitted" water after
two efforts to market the water supplies allocated to western Colorado uses. The Recovery
Program agreed in 1994 to explore arrangements for using the water which is uncommitted after
the latest marketing effort to enhance fish recovery flows for approximately 15 years, and the
FWS relied upon that commitment in approving the Bureau of Reclamation's proposed "Round
II" sales. These efforts have become complicated by reservoir operation limits intended to
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December 30, 1997
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