BOARD00244

• Board Meeting Date: 7/23/2002
• Description: CF Section - Statewide Water Supply Investigation - Review Plan of Study
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

,

j"

ENVIRONMENTAl. DEFENSE 'LAND AND WATER FUND OF THE ROCKIES' TROUT UNLIMITED

Full use of compact water:

Even assuming that it is possible to capture 100% of Colorado's entitlements and
apportionments, this should not be a study objective, or part of any CWCB effort.
Identifying the unused quantum of Colorado's shares of its rivers is a task that does not
have a single answer, as evidenced by the 1995 Final Report of the Endangered Fish
Flow and Colorado River Compact Water Development Workgroup. Moreover, even the
1995 Final Report can be only a starting point; revisions likely are necessary to
encompass new trends in precipitation, temperature, water use, and the possibility ofthe
present drought becoming a long-term condition.

More importantly, however, full use of all of Colorado's compact waters is effectively
"build-out" of the state and means that there is no capacity for any additional population
without removing some current use. This is probably unrealistic and certainly not
warranted. In addition, full use of our compact apportionments in average water years
would eliminate any excess water in average years. This would then require the
hydrologic cycle to be in perfect balance, with just enough excess water during wet years
that the system could accumulate in sufficient storage reserves for release in dry years.
Were the system not perfectly balanced (and in the real world, of course, it would not be),
the system would fail.

Please let any of us know if you have questions on these comments. We look forward to
working with you.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Pitt
Environmental Defense
[phone]

Bart Miller
Land and Water Fund ofthe Rockies
[phone]

David Nickum and Melinda Kassen
Trout Unlimited
[phone]

4