Quantity/Quality/Wildlife Meeting January 5 1995

• Description: Quantity/Quality/Wildlife Meeting January 5 1995
• State: CO
• Date: 1/5/1995
• Title: Quantity/Quality/Wildlife Meeting January 5 1995
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

has developed expertise within its staff to address complex water
rights and engineering issues, and has been given statutory
authority to appropriate or acquire water rights for the
preservation of the natural environment to a reasonable degree.
Colorado's Instream Flow Program was established by the Colorado
General Assembly in 1973. It authorizes the CWCB to appropriate
or acquire water rights for the protection of instream flows and
natural lake levels to "correlate the activities of mankind with
some reasonable preservation of the natural environment." These
water rights must be supported by formal determinations by the
CWCB that there is a natural environment which can be preserved
to a reasonable degree with the CWCB's water right, and that this
preservation can be accomplished without material injury to other
water rights. Once the CWCB appropriates or acquires these water
rights, they are administered in priority with all other water
rights. The CWCB has protected approximately 7500 miles of
Colorado's streams and 485 natural lakes under the provisions of
this program.
In 1988, the CWCB supported the decision by the State of Colorado
to enter into a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of
Interior and the states of Utah and Wyoming, with the goal of
addressing the needs of four endangered fishes which inhabit the
Colorado River and the associated regulatory requirements in
order to allow water resource development and management to
continue. This recovery program affords water development and
environmental protection interests full participation in the
decision process, and has effectively avoided the confrontation
and regulatory gridlock often associated with endangered species
protection. In 1992, the CWCB supported the decision to enter
into a similar recovery program for the San Juan River, and it is
currently supporting efforts by DNR to establish a recovery
program for several endangered birds which depend upon riparian
habitat associated with the Platte River in Nebraska.
Although the CWCB has no direct authority for the protection of
water quality or wildlife, it consults and cooperates with the
Wildlife Commission, the Water Quality Control Commission, DOW,
and the Water Quality Control Division (WQCD). The CWCB has
coordinated closely with DOW in the implementation of Colorado's
Instream Flow and Natural Lake Level Program, the two existing
recovery programs for endangered fishes of the Colorado River,
the designation of "sensitive" species and the development of
recovery plans for them, and many other activities of common
interest and concern. The CWCB also coordinates with the WQCD in
the review of proposed water quality standards and use
classifications in order to prevent unnecessary complication or
infringement upon water development or management opportunities,
as indicated in SB 89 -181 and HB 92 -1200, and on other issues of
mutual interest.
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