Summary Water Roundtable 16 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Kelly Palmer,hydrologist with SJPLC, said that in drafting the water-related sections, she tried to stay true to the language suggested by the Water Roundtable,but some revisions had been made by other reviewers such as the Regional Office. Some redundancies have been eliminated. The April 2004 Memorandum of Understanding between the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Water Conservation Board and U.S. Forest Service, and a similar MOU involving the BLM, are not included verbatim in the Plan,but language from them has been incorporated, they are referenced in the Plan, and they are still in effect. Thurman showed sections of the Plan concerning fish and wildlife habitat. The draft language states that for all other trout besides Colorado cutthroat trout, a minimum of 50 percent of the usable area that would occur under natural flow conditions should be maintained within each stream reach. For designated conservation populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout, 100 percent of usable habitat should be maintained. John Taylor, representing Hinsdale County, asked what this would mean in the case of an existing irrigation structure that had dried up a stream. Mark said if someone were seeking a permit renewal for the irrigation structure there would have to be changes. He said the term"natural flow conditions"means what you could reasonably expect the natural flow to be if the stream were unregulated, without diversions. As a rule of thumb,the agencies will apply these criteria to meet the requirement that species populations should remain viable. Janice asked whether that included populations of fish species that are stocked. Mark said yes. Mark said the use of instream flow, habitat improvements or water-trading could be explored in order to achieve population viability. Otherwise, the rule of thumb would be the requirement for 50 percent of usable area. Dave Gerhardt said the 100 percent rule is for designated populations of the Colorado cutthroat trout. It has no link to native flow conditions. The goal is to make sure that existing conservation populations of the native trout don't degrade, as per the Tri-State agreement. Dave said the agencies try to work with water-users to whatever extent possible. If they have a credible reason for deviating from the guideline, it should be up to the line officer to make that agreement. The 50-percent of usable area figure is tied back to the agencies' experience applying the old standard of 40 percent of habitat capability. Also, 50 percent was more in line with the state's methodology, Dave said. The guidelines are all in flux and the language is being reviewed by the Regional Office. 5