BOARD01101

• Board Meeting Date: 7/23/2001
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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however, it is junior in priority to the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District's water rights, For the
COlpS to impose the CWCB's junior instream flow water right as a bypass on the District is contrary to
the state's position on bypass flows, CWCB and DNR staff also expressed concern that the citizen
petition process could have serious precedent setting implications for other water right holders that are
subject to 404 Permits.

Surplus Guidelines Implementation Agreement: On May 23 Arizona Governor Hull signed Senate
Joint Resolution 1001 ratifying an agreement with California and Nevada about the allocation of water
in the Lower Colorado River Basin, as well as an agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California, The agreement is part of the process of implementing the federal Interim SUlplus
Criteria Guidelines.

Gunnison River Basin Issues

Gunnison PBO: Forty-two members of the Gunnison River Basin PBO working group met in Montrose
on June 26.

Reclamation provided a status report on Aspinall re-operations and said it would likely be August 2002
before Aspinall modeling could be completed, Gerry Roehm from the USFWS reported that final flow
recommendations (designed to provide habitat for endangered fish) are expected to be issued by the end
of September, Chuck Pettee from the National Park Service (NPS) reported that the venue for the Black
Canyon water rights case will likely be in the 4th District.

There was also an update about current Recovery Program activities in the Gunnison Basin, These
include continued operation of the Redlands fish ladder, evaluation of the need for a fish screen at the
Redlands diversion and fish passage at Hartland dam, stocking razorback suckers, and monitoring fish
populations. A report is due later this year on whether it would be beneficial to increase water
temperatures for Colorado pikeminnow downstream from the Aspinall unit. ill addition, a proposal to
evaluate razorback spawning in the Gunnison will be carried out next year.

Roehm reported that USFWS has granted an extension to the states and tribes to review and comment on
draft Recovery Goals, The USFWS hopes to be able to publish them in the Federal Register yet this
year, Roehm was asked why the Lower Basin was included in these goals. Roehm explained that until
"distinct population segments" of the four species have been formally designated, the two sub-basins
would be linked for recovery pUlposes, While most reproducing populations of these species are found
in the Upper Basin, a population of humpback chubs in the Grand Canyon is considered important for
recovery. There are no self-sustaining populations of razorback suckers in the Lower Basin, but several
reservoirs there serve as refugia for this species.

Roehm distributed an outline of a recovery implementation plan for the Gunnison Basin, including a list
of recovery actions specific to the Gunnison River, and others in the Colorado River downstream from
the Gunnison River confluence that also benefit Gunnison River endangered fishes, This plan will be the
basis for a programmatic biological opinion for the basin. However, during the discussion of a timeline
for this process, several significant issues were raised:

1. The USBR wishes to include the operations of ALL ofits Gunnison Basin projects under this
plan and PBO, rather than carry out ESA compliance on any of its projects separately,

Aspinall is the largest of these and key to FWS flow recommendations and NPS water rights.

FWS flow recommendations have not been finalized,

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3,
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5.

NPS water rights may take years to resolve,
USBR future demand/depletion estimate has not been finalized,

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