Fryingpan-Arkansas Project Water Year 2005 Summary of Actual Operations

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the various sources of Ruedi water available to support the endangered fish. With no river calls for Ruedi in water year 2005, there were no contract water releases. Given the above - average precipitation within the basin and with no contract releases or river calls, Ruedi Reservoir finished the water year with 83,851 acre - feet in storage, which is 89 percent of average. Total cumulative precipitation for the year was 20.83 inches, or 125 percent of average. Discretionary releases totaled 20,980 acre -feet, with most of those releases taking place between late June and August, while the reservoir level was hovering near the spillway crest level. Ruedi Reservoir is one of the participating reservoirs in the Coordinated Reservoir Operations (CRO) effort of the upper Colorado River endangered fish Recovery Program (RIP). The effort is directed at augmenting peak flow in the 15 -Mile Reach of the Colorado River to benefit habitat improvement and spawning for two of the endangered Colorado River fishes. The 15 -Mile Reach is the 15 -mile stretch of the Colorado River above the confluence with the Gunnison River in Grand Valley. Due to the extremely low carryover storage in the upper Colorado River basin reservoirs, water supply forecasts indicated that most of the CRO participating reservoirs were not likely to fill. For that reason, the CRO effort was cancelled for water year 2005. Exhibits 1 and 2 show the precipitation and pan evaporation at Meredith, Colorado, near Ruedi Reservoir. Table 1 and Exhibit 3 depict the monthly operation of the reservoir during water year 2005. B. West Slope Collection System and Proiect Diversions The import of project water through the Boustead Tunnel began on April 17, 2005, and concluded on July 30, 2005. The daily discharge record for the diversion structures is included as Appendix D. A total of 54,564 acre -feet was imported during the 2005 water year, which is 112 percent of average. There was no Busk - Ivanhoe water imported through the Boustead Tunnel. The maximum mean daily import was 834 cfs on May 23, 2005. The most probable forecasts for the first of February, March, April, and May were 65,500 acre -feet, 46,400 acre -feet, 50,500 acre -feet, and 48,400 acre -feet, respectively. The total imports for the water year; the accumulated imports to the Arkansas River; the water used for the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company exchange; and the import water available for allocations by the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, are shown on Table 4. The 34 years of accumulated imports total 1,637,600 acre -feet, for an average of 48,165 acre -feet per year. A plot of the Boustead Tunnel imports during water year 2005 is shown on Exhibit 5.