BOARD02095

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/2004
• Description: ISF Section - Instream Flow Appropriations - Currant 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 Currant Creek to the
CWCB for inclusion into the Instream Flow Program. Currant 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 Currant Creek provides more than 20 miles of fishery habitat
in an arid zone with rapid rural development and the BLM has acquired a significant amount of
land along the creek.

Currant Creek is approximately 31 miles long. It begins on the westem flank of Thirtynine Mile
Mountain at an elevation of approximately 9,900 feet and terminates at the confluence with the
Arkansas River at an elevation of approximately 5,700 feet. Currant Creek is located within
Park and Fremont counties. The total drainage area of the Currant Creek upstream of
Cottonwood Creek is approximately 147 square miles. Currant Creek generally flows in a
southerly direction.

The subj ect of this report is a segment of Currant Creek beginning at the confluence Thirtyone
Mile Creek and extending downstream to confluence with Mill Gulch (see Map Appendix D).
The proposed segment is located northeast of Salida. 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 1.9 cfs, summer, and 1.0 cfs, winter for the upper reach and it recommended
2.0 cfs, summer, and 1.4 cfs, winter for the lower reach, based on its April 29, 1997, and
September 19, 2001, 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
Thirtyone Mile Creek Mill Gulch 6.9 32% 68 %
Mill Gulch Cottonwood Creek 15.8 63 % 37%

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