BOARD01934 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. . . The Referendum carried four ofthe 15 counties in the district, but failed in the especially critical counties of Mesa and Garfield. The ballot measure would have increased the district's mill levy by 0.25 mills, raising $2.7million per year for 20 years for a capital projects fund to be used to remediate the West Slope's water supply. The owner of $1 00,000 worth of real property would have been assessed only $2.30 per year. The board identified four areas of need for insulating the West Slope from drought conditions, The Referendum would have funded purchase of federally-controlled water for river management during dry years; it would have paid for enlarging and refurbishing West Slope reservoirs that could be stoflng more water; it would have been used to assist in construction of much needed local water ,projects; and it would have been used in water quality programs that qualified for additional federa; funding and would have also increase water yield. No other water agency in the state had ever placed drought protection measures on the ballot. Gunnison River Basin Issues Aspinall Unit Reservoir Operations: This year's drought has resulted in the draw down of Blue Mesa Storage to approximately one-third capacity. As a result, we continued to cooperate with Reclamation and water users in the Gunnison Basin and provided a letter on Oct. 4 in which we stated that CWCB would seek minimum flow protection for the Gunnison River below the Gunnise,) Tunnel of no more than 200 cfs as provided for by our instream flow decree under drought conditions. Subsequently, Reclamation has issued a press release indicating that they will maintain [, .minimum flow of only 250 cfs through the Black Canyon\Gurmison Gorge this winter or until runoJ i forecasts indicate higher releases and a return to the 300 cfs decreed minimum are justified. This should help replenish some of the storage in Blue Mesa Reservoir. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park - Federal Reserved Water Rights Quantification: CWCB staff continues to serve as part of Colorado's negotiating team working with other Colorado water users and a number offederal agencies towards the quantification of the National Park Service's decreed instream flow federal reserved water right. Progress on this matter has been very slow, but there is a major meeting with federal representatives set for Nov. 22 on this matter. We will discuss this with the Board during executive session. USF&WS Flow Recommendations for the Gunnison River: CWCB continues to work with Upper Colorado River Recovery Program participants on objections raised to the proposed flow recommendations for the Gunnison River. The recommendations have been revised several times by the principal investigator in response to comments from program participants. Our chief concerns remain water availability, flood potential, and the need for the large peaks recommended given that they are not fully supported by charmel morphology research. GMUG Pathfinder Project: The CWCB staff continues to work with the USFS and other interested parties on the GMUG Pathfinder Project. Gary Shellhorn of the USFS has recently taken over lead 'responsibility ofthe Pathfinder Project. The Project is currently focusing on the identification of resource values within the North Fork Gurmison watershed and determining appropriate flow protection tools for preserving those resource values, Platte River Basin Issues Golden Oral Argument: On Oct. 2 the Colorado Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the appeal involving Golden's kayaking course, A decision is expected in 2003. 14