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<br />rights to a point of diversion upstrearn anywhere on the ESF property and a change in the type <br />of use to include all beneficial uses, ESF is also requesting the right to augment the out-of- . <br />priority depletions of the wells and ponds by exchange with Twin Lakes Shares and consumptive <br />use credits from the two senior downstream water rights. Applicant is requesting an <br />appropriation date of March 20, 1998, for any exchange. CWCB and AGO staff have reviewed <br />the ESF's proposed stipulation and have the following comments: <br /> <br />1) Staff is willing to consider the ESF's wells and ponds as being senior to the Board's Tennessee <br />Creek ISF recommendation if the necessary information regarding their appropriation date is <br />provided to the Board. If the ESF's water rights are senior it allows them to divert at the wells <br />and ponds in-priority notwithstanding the Board's ISF recommendation on Tennessee Creek. <br />2) ESF's proposed exchanges would be junior to the Board's ISF recommendation. It is staff's <br />opinion that ESF could only run their exchanges when the Board's Tennessee Creek ISF <br />recommendation was satisfied. <br />3) It is staff's opinion that the Board's ISF recommendation on Tennessee Creek would also be <br />senior to all proposed changes of water rights requested by the ESF. <br />4) The staff also believes that the Board's decreed ISF on East Tennessee Creek would be senior <br />to all conditional water rights and change of water rights requested by the ESF in their <br />amended application. <br /> <br />TECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS <br /> <br />The enclosed packet oftechnica1 data forms the basis for the staff's recommendations and reflects any <br />changes to the instream flow recommendations as a result of the required 120 day Public Review and . <br />Comment Period. The actual time period for public comment for the Fourmile and Tennessee Creek <br />instream flow recommendations has been open for over 270 days or nine months. <br /> <br />Natural Environment Studies <br /> <br />The BLM and CDOW have conducted field surveys of the fishery resources on these streams and <br />have found that a natural environment can be preserved on each of these streams. To quantifY the <br />resources and to evaluate instream flow requirements, the CDOW and BLM collected biologic and <br />hydraulic data that were analyzed by the BLM, CDOW and Board staffs. Based on the results of <br />these analyses, the CDOW and BIM prepared recommendations of the amount of water necessary <br />to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree for each of the streams on the attached <br />list of Instream Flow Recommendations. <br /> <br />Water Availability Studies <br /> <br />The CWCB staff has conducted an evaluation of water availability for these streams, To detemllne <br />the amount of water physically available for the Board's appropriations, the staff analyzed available <br />USGS gage records, available streamflow models, and/or utilized appropriate standard methods to <br />develop a hydro graph of mean monthly flows for each recommendation. The staff also relied upon <br />the flow measurements made as part of the field survey as an indicator of the amount of water <br />Page 6 of7 . <br />