BOARD01594

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/2004
• Description: ISF Section - Instream Flow Appropriations - Roubideau Creek
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Summary
The information contained in this report and the associated instream flow file folder forms the
basis for staff s instream flow recommendation to be considered by the Board. It is staff's
opinion that the information contained in this report is sufficient to support the fmdings required
in Rule 5.40.

Colorado's Instream Flow Program was created in 1973 when the Colorado State Legislature
recognized "the need to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of
the natural environment" (see 37-92-102 (3) C.R.S.). The statute vests the CWCB with the
exclusive authority to appropriate and acquire instream flow and natural lake level water rights.
In order to encourage other entities to participate in Colorado's Instream Flow Program, the
statute directs the CWCB to request instream flow recommendations from other state and federal
agencies. The Bureau of Land Management recommended this segment of Roubideau Creek to
the CWCB for inclusion into the Instream Flow Program. Roubideau Creek is being considered
for inclusion into the Instream Flow Program because it has a natural environment that can be
preserved to a reasonable degree with an instream flow water right. The BLM is very interested
in protecting stream flows because historically the Roubideau Creek watershed has provided
large amounts of spawning habitat for sensitive fishes that migrate up into the creek from the
Gunnison River. In addition, BLM has started a riparian rehabilitation effort along the creek to
address more than 100 years of use of the canyon bottom as a livestock driveway from pastures
on Forest Service lands on the top of the Uncompahgre Plateau to private lands located in
Uncompahgre Valley.

Roubideau Creek is 20.0 miles long. It begins on the eastem flank of the Uncompahgre Plateau
near Box Spring at an elevation of approximately 9,840 feet and terminates at the confluence
with the Gunnison River at an elevation of approximately 4,900 feet. The entire 14.4 mile
segment addressed by this report is located on federal lands. Roubideau Creek is located within
Delta and Montrose counties. Roubideau Creek generally flows in a northeasterly direction.

The subject of this report is a segment of Roubideau Creek beginning at Moore Creek and
extending downstream to Potter Creek (see Map Appendix D). The proposed segment is located
southwest of Delta. The staff has received only one recommendation for this segment, from the
BLM. The recommendation for this segment is discussed below.

Instream Flow Recommendation(s)

BLM recommended 21.0 cfs, summer, and 10.0 cfs, winter, based on its May 21 and 22, 2002
and June 4 and 5, 2003 data collection efforts (see Appendix A). The modeling results from this
survey effort are within the confidence interval produced by the R2Cross model.

land Status Review

Total Length Land Ownership
Upper Terminus Lower Terminus (miles) % Private % Public
Moore Creek BLM Land 14.4 14 % 86%
Boundary

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