PUB00004

• Year: 2003
• Title: Gunnison Basin Water: No Panacea for the Front Range
• CWCB Section: Administration
• Author: Land and Water Fund
• Description: Gunnison Basin Water: No Panacea for the Front Range
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

. 12 .

The land and Water Fund of the Rockies

CD

The Gunnison: A Basin In Balance

bonytail chub, and humpback chub."" FWS therefore imposed, as reasonable and
prudent alternatives to compensate for loss of water from the river system, that a vol-
ume equal to the Dolores and Dallas Creek projects' depletions must be released to
the Gunnison."

While these Biological Opinions did not expressly note the source of water
supply for the compensation, the only clear source is the Aspinall Unit. When the
Bureau was going through consultation with the FWS over a sizing and power modi-
fication study on Crystal Dam, FWS wrote: "By proceeding with construction of the
Dallas Creek and Dolores projects, FWS assumes that [the Bureau] has adopted the
reasonable and prudent alternatives"'"-Le., the proposal to release an equal amount
of water from the Gunnison.

In his opinion in Union Park I, Judge Brown acknowledged the responsibility
of the Aspinall Unit to mitigate for these depletions by releasing up to 148,000 AFA
from the Aspinall Unit each year." He also found that this amount is to be in addi-
tion to the amount of water (assumed at the time to be 300 ds) to be passed through
Aspinall for the benefit of the Black Canyon."

(b) Minimum flows in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

The Aspinall Unit also releases minimum stream flows for Black Canyon of
the Gunnison National Park, located immediately below the Aspinall Unit. The Park
currently has minimum flows of at least 300 ds year-round." This in-stream right
was gifted to The Nature Conservancy, who then donated it to Ihe CWCB." Due to
the drought of 2002 the Bureau of Reclamation dropped flows in the Black Canyon to
250 ds beginning in mid-October.

In 1978, the United States was granted a conditional water right to satisf'y the
purposes of the Black Canyon. In January 2001, the United States filed to quantify
and make absolute this federal reserved right. Negotiations surrounding this filing
may result in re-operation of the Aspinall Unit to provide an instream right with sea-
sonal fluctuations much more like the river's natural hydrograph. Chapter 2 includes
a more detailed discussion of this federal reserved right.

(c) Bypass flows at Redlands for Endangered Fish

Aspinall storage also facilitates stream flows critical to the recovery of endan-
gered fish species in the lower Gunnison, hastening the time in which these species
may be taken off the endangered species list and their populations restored. Pursuant
to USFWS biological opinions and the Upper Colorado River Fish Recovery Program,
explained in greater detail in Chapter 2, the Bureau is required to meet the needs of
these species. This commitment, while not firmly quantified in the Gunnison except
for the flows below the Redlands fish ladder, comes before meeting other water
demands. As Chapter 2 explains, ESA requirements are outside of the prior appropri-
ation system and can curtail other water uses if needed to avoid jeopardizing the exis-
tence of species.