BOARD02010

• Board Meeting Date: 9/24/2001
• Description: Snowmass Water and Sanitation District 404 Permit
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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PUBLIC COMMENT OF
THE SNOWMASS-cAPITOL CREEK CAUCUS and others'
concerning Proposed Modification of Corps of Engineers Permit 190106516

Good morning. I am Mark Pearson and am appearing on behalf of the citizens'
organizations which have petitioned the Corps of Engineers to modifY the existing 404
permit held by the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District on Snowmass Creek. I am
reading a short statement prepared by the attorney for the petitioners, who could not be
here today. Tfyou should have any questions, or want more detail than T can give you
here today, I will be glad to arrange to have that information provided to you.

First, I'd like to give a little background on why this petition was filed. When the
District applied for a permit in 1978, the Snowmass Caucus objected, as did Pitkin
County. The District represented to the public and the Corps that "the impact on fishery
and wildlife values is not significant." It agreed to hire an independent engineer to.
determine what survival flow was necessary to be left in the stream. It offered to enter
into a written agreement with the Caucus to guarantee this. It entered into a similar
agreement with the County. The Caucus and the County withdrew their objections to the
permit in exchange for these assurances in two written Agreements. Only after both of
these Agreements were signed did the Corps grant the permit. The Corps later said in
writing that in issuing its 404 permit, "we were relying on these agreements to protect the
environment. "

Over the following 15 years, the stretch of Snowmass Creek below the District's
diversion was studied more than almost any other stream in this state. The Caucus had its
own consultants do studies on the Creek, and it participated with the CWCB in
negotiating amendments to the CWCB's minimum instream flow rights for the Creek.
The County, the District and the CWCB also had scientists study flows and the fishery on
the Creek. The County's consultant directly contradicted the District's representation of
no impacts to Snowmass Creek, as did much of the other data that was developed.

Petitioners also included American Rivers, Sierra Club, Ferdinand Hayden Chapter
of Trout Unlimited, Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Roaring Fork Chapter of the Audubon
Society, Windstar Land Conservancy, and High Country Citizens Alliance,

public comment cwcb.doc