BOARD01516

• Board Meeting Date: 7/23/1991
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Memos. Partial. No Minutes.
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
Department of Natural Resources
721 State Centennial Building
1313 Sherman Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]

STATE OF COLORADO
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Roy Romer
Governor
David W. Walker
Director

MEMORANDUM

TO: Members, CWCB

FROM: Dan Merriman

DATE: July 16, 199.1

SUBJECf: Agenda Item 16a, July 23-24, 1991, Board Meeting--
Withdrawal of Statement of Opposition: Instream Flow Program
Case No. 6-91CW014; Van Straaten

Case Summary

The Board ratified the statement of opposition filed in this case at its May, 1991,
meeting. The applicant is filing for a new (1991) storage right for a pond which was
constructed and filled in June, 1988, on Coulton Creek near Clark in Routt County (see
attached map). The Board holds an instream flow decree on Coulton Creek for 1 cfs
with an appropriation date of September 23, 1977. The Board's opposition to this junior
storage right was based upon potential impacts from the inundation of the Board's
instream flow right and from out-of-priority evaporation losses from the pond.

Discussion

Representatives of the Division of Wildlife (DOW) and the CWCB staff visited
Van Straaten Pond on May 17, 1991, to quantify and evaluate the inundated reach of
Coulton Creek. The on-channel pond is approximately 0.91 surface acres in size and
consists of an earthen dam with no outlet works. The pond inundates approximately 250
feet of the Board's four mile instream flow reach.

Electrofishing samples were taken in Coulton Creek both above and below Van
Straaten Pond. These samples were compared with samples taken by the DOW in 1976
at the time the Board made its appropriation. Based on this comparison, the DOW has
concluded that Van Straaten Pond has had a negligible impact on the natural
environment of Coulton Creek (i~ll att.l~h"d ktl<,,).-'-..