BOARD00220

• Board Meeting Date: 9/22/2003
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

and provisions of the 1937 legislation authorizing the Colorado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT) by
reducing the amount of water available to West Slope water users.

.C-BT was authorized to provide supplemental irrigation water for northeastern Colorado. It serves about
720,000 acres, diverting some 260,000-acre feet (at) from the Colorado River drainage on the West Slope,
under the Continental Divide, to the East Slope. A predominant feature of the project is the 543,000 acre-
foot reservoir called Lake Granby from which water is diverted. However, to insure sufficient water
remained for West Slope irrigation, power generation and other past, present and future water uses and
protect water rights, Green Mountain Reservoir was constructed on the Blue River, a tributary to the
Colorado. Spring runoff is stored and released to compensate for water diverted above the confluence of
the Colorado and Blue Rivers. A 1977 Memorandum Opinion issued by the U.S. District Court for the
District of Colorado requires that C-BT provide "full protection for the present and future water
requirements of Western Colorado."

According to the Petitioners, the 1937 authorizing legislation requires that Green Mountain Reservoir,
with a total capacity of 154,000 AF, maintain 152,000 AF of water in two "pools," a 52,000 AF
"replacement pool" and a 100,000 AF "compensatory pool," which provide waterfor West Slope
interests. However, the dead pool is 7,000 AF, leaving only 147,000 AF of use able storage. Further, in
order to prevent the reoccurrence of a historic landslide that threatened the town of Heeney, located on the
shore of the reservoir, Reclamation has set aside 20,000 AF of storage. Petitioners claim these facts and
operational changes limiting drawdown rates for releases have reduced the usable storage available from
the "compensatory pool," in violation oftheir rights under the Blue River Decree.

The Petitioners ask the court to require Reclamation to "take whatever steps are necessary to provide at
least 152,000 acre feet of active, usable storage." Moreover, "Petitioners also seek a declaration that, in
the event of any reduction in the usable capacity of Green Mountain Reservoir caused by operational
.limitations (as opposed to hydrologic drought conditions), the water remaining must be allocated first to
ctual uses of the beneficiaries of the compensatory pool and then to replacement for transmountain
diversions."

We will discuss this case in more detail at our meeting.

Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program: The Forum and its related body, the Advisory
Council, will meet in Santa Fe, N.M. on Oct. 28-29. Discussions will focus on federal funding
recommendations and expanding the USDA program to include the Mancos Colorado area.

Interim 602(il) Storage Guidelines: In January, Reclamation solicited public comments on the adoption
of Interim 602(a) Storage Guidelines for the management of the Colorado River and to initiate a NEPA
process for implementing those guidelines. These guidelines set a floor for 602(a) storage contents at
14.85 MAF (elevation 3630 in Lake Powell). If the level of Lake Powell falls below this value, there
would be no equalization of storage between Lakes Powell and Mead and the minimum objective release
from Lake Powell of8.23 MAF would govern annual operations. This was part of the basin states
proposal for Interim Surplus Guidelines, but was excluded from that package because it did not deal
specifically with operations at Lake Mead and in the Lower Basin. We anticipate that a draft
Environmental Assessment will be released by the end of September 2003 for public review and
comment.

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