Hermosa Creek Workgroup Meeting 13 Summary April 7 2009 Draft

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gaps by 2050 throughout Colorado, mostly on the Front Range. Steve said this area also has many trans -basin diversions and we need to look at the big picture and consider that Hermosa Creek's water may be needed for a trans -basin diversion — to Dolores, for example. Bruce said there are needs in some of the adjacent basins already. Chuck said Durango has enough rights to support a population of 44,000 without significantly reducing the number of gallons per day used per capita. He would guess the gap for Municipal & Irrigation water for this area is under 10,000 acre - feet. He doesn't think anybody is going to die of thirst because of it. Jeff Widen of the Wilderness Society asked Bruce, if there were a way to do a WSR without a FRWR — such as designating the FRWR and immediately donating it to the CWCB's Instream Flow ( "ISF ") program, as has been suggested — would that make the WSR more palatable? Bruce said the further you get away from a FRWR the more palatable this scenario becomes. Jeff explained recent legislation creating the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area in western Colorado because it had special language surrounding water. This was legislation to designate wilderness, not a WSR. It says, upon designation of the wilderness area, two things happen simultaneously: The federal government asserts a federal water right but the state starts a process for determining what an ISF should be in Dominguez Creek. If the Secretary of Interior finds the ISF is adequate to protect the values, the ISF becomes the permanent solution. If the state flow is found not adequate, then the federal government can continue to pursue the FRWR. Jeff said the conservation community tends to look for federal control because of the feeling that ISF standards are not enough to protect the whole range of river values. It was asked whether a FRWR means that, once the water flows off the federal land, it still can be used. You could put a dam further down on the stream; you still have all the water that comes out of the Hermosa Creek Area. It was agreed that this is correct. But Steve said upstream on Hermosa Creek, there are existing water rights, so if someone wants to change the use or change a. point of diversion there could be a big problem. A FRWR could also prevent a future upstream use in the Hermosa drainage area. If a mining claim needed a small amount of water or someone wanted to build a stock pond that might be prevented, if all the unappropriated water is dedicated to a FRWR. Chuck said that could be true but not necessarily. You could craft the right locally and it would not necessarily reserve all the unclaimed water. To him these are very surmountable hurdles. You could take all the rights that are conditional on Hermosa Creek and save enough water for them. There are not many rights up there. Accommodating such small amounts should be easy if there is a willingness to do it. The question of the reservoir site, however, may be tougher to deal with.