BOARD01975

• Board Meeting Date: 11/25/2002
• Description: WSP Section - Black Canyon Reserved Water Right, Case No. 4-01CW005
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

.

e

e

e

CWCB Resolution Concerning the National Park Service (NPS) Application
Quantifying Water Rights for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
March, 2001

WHEREAS, the Gunnison Tunnel was constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1909
with a 1904 water right decree, which decree is held by Reclamation for the use and benefit of the
Uncompahgre Project; and

WHEREAS, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument was created by
presidential proclamation in 1933; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation constructed Taylor Park Reservoir in 1935 for the
use and benefit of the Uncompahgre Project; and

WHEREAS, the construction of the Curecanti Unit (aka Aspinall Unit) was authorized by the
Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956; and

WHEREAS, an Economic Justification Report for the Aspinall Unit was completed in 1960 which
indicated that approximately 700,000 AF of water on average would need to pass though the
hydropower facilities annually in order to justify construction; and

WHEREAS, construction of Blue Mesa Reservoir was completed in 1966, Morrow Point
Reservoir in 1968 and Crystal Reservoir in 1976; and

WHEREAS, an exchange agreement between Taylor Park Reservoir and Blue Mesa
Reservoir was executed in 1975; and

WHEREAS, in 1978 the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument was decreed an
unquantified federal reserved instream flow water right for the Gunnison River for fish and to
preserve recreational, scenic and aesthetic conditions; and

WHEREAS, the CWCB is the state agency authorized to hold instream flow water rights in
Colorado and holds such an instream right on the Gunnison River from the gauge immediately
below the Gunnison Tunnel downstream to the North Fork of the Gunnison confluence that could
be injured as a result of the high peak flows requested by the NPS; and

WHEREAS, the requested NPS high peak flows would also be adverse to trout spawning and
fishery management, recreation, rafting, flat water recreation and fisheries, and existing water
rights and future water development pursuant to interstate compacts; and