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<br /> <br />Moving Blue Mesa's Marketable Yield: A Myth <br /> <br />@ <br /> <br />Several conditional rights have a priority date preceding or equal to the <br />Aspinall Unit. The UVWUA holds a conditional decree for 125 cfs (priority date <br />1905) for additional agricultural diversions at the Gunnison Tunnel. If tunnel capaci- <br />ty is expanded and water is put to use, the UVWUA:s absolute right will total 1300 <br />cfs, senior to the Aspinall Unit. <br /> <br />The United States has been decreed a conditional water right to satisfy the <br />purposes of the Black Canyon National Park (first designated as a National Monument <br />in 1933). In 2001, the United States filed in water court to quantify that right. The <br />filing and the ongoing negotiations surrounding it are described in greater detail <br />below. <br /> <br />Tri-State Electric Generation and Transmission Inc., the company that gener- <br />ates and transmits power to rural electric co-operatives in Colorado and several other <br />states, holds conditional water rights for the Tri-County Hydro Project.'" These rights <br />consist of a storage right for a reservoir of about 73,000 AF. with a priority date of <br />1948, and two direct flow rights totaling about 6,000 cfs, with a priority date of 1980. <br />Six thousand cfs is equivalent to 4,344,000 AFA, an amount of water many times <br />greater than the total amount that flows into Blue Mesa Reservoir in an average year. <br /> <br />The Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District has large conditional <br />direct flow and storage rights as part of the Upper Gunnison Project. In the most <br />recent diligence proceeding in 1999, the Upper Gunnison District applied for dili- <br />gence on 14 conditional rights with a combined direct flow equal to 1,562 cfs and <br />storage rights of 88,083 AF." These conditional rights are-for a broad range of purpos- <br />es, including domestic and municipal use, irrigation and stock watering, industrial, <br />development of electrical energy, flood control, and piscatorial, wildlife protection <br />and preservation, and recreation." <br /> <br />There are other large conditional water rights in the basin, but their priority <br />dates fall after those of the Aspinall Unit." <br /> <br />2. Endangered Species Requirements <br /> <br />The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is comprehensive federal legislation to pro- <br />tect and recover threatened and endangered plant and animal species. Among its <br />many and powerful provisions is the requirement that agencies consult with the U.S. <br />Fish & Wildlife Service over the potential impact of certain proposed federal actions." <br /> <br />The consultation requirement, together with other provisions of the ESA, is <br />the basis for the required releases from Aspinall to make up for depletions resulting <br />from the Dallas Creek and Dolores Projects described in Chapter 1, as well as for the <br />bypass flows below Redlands Dam. However, these releases constitute only a fraction <br />of the releases that are likely to be required as a result of consultation already under- <br />way as part of the FWS's Endangered Fish Recovery Implementation Program <br />(Recovery Program or RIP). In addition, the consultation that would be required for <br />any proposed transport of marketable yield to the Front Range will further affect mar- <br />ketable yield. <br /> <br />Gunnison Basin Water <br /> <br />.23. <br />