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<br />Telluride Daily Planet - Local news <br /> <br />Page 2 of2 <br /> <br /> <br />stream or river where it is appropriated, which is the goal of the Instream <br />Flow Program. <br /> <br />In the 1970s many Coloradans, including governmeJ)t officials, began to <br />view their abundant natural resources differently: to realize that healthy, <br />intact ecosystems were potentially more valuable th~n ones that had been <br />exhausted and polluted. As the state's water plannin~ and policy making <br />agency, the CWCB moved, with the Instream Flow Program, to protect <br />its waterways. <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />A waterway's health is often measured by the quality and diversity of the <br />life it sustains. If a waterway's fish and riparian habitats indicate a natural <br />environment exists that could be "preserved to a reasonable degree" by <br />an instream flow water right, then the CWCB files Qn that stream. <br /> <br />i <br />If the CWCB believes that a stream could be preseryed by an instream <br />flow, the CWCB must figure out that minimum flow. Determining the <br />amount of water, measured by cubic feet per second, needed to remain in <br />the stream to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree is a <br />challenging task. In response CWCB has developecj, in concert with the <br />state Department of Wildlife, a set of standard proclldures that collects <br />hydrolic and biological data to determine that magie number. <br /> <br />Once the CWCB has discovered the minimum flow' for a waterway, it <br />then files on those cfs and, like everyone else, CWCB's water rights take <br />their place on the ladder of seniority. Within Division IV, where the San <br />Miguel is located, the CWCB has protected 246 segments covering 1,600 <br />miles of stream. <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />http://www.telluridegateway.comlarchive/2001_ archiv~/060401 dp.html <br /> <br />07/10/2001 <br />