BOARD02147

• Board Meeting Date: 5/19/2003
• Description: ISF Section - Instream Flow Appropriations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.U5

Bill Owens
Governor

MEMORANDUM

GregE, Walcher
Executive Director

To:

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

From: Dan Merriman
Mark Uppendahl

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Date: May 12, 2003

Re: Agenda Item 17 (Items a-I), May 19-20, 2003, Board Meeting-
Stream and Lake Protection - Instream Flow Appropriations

GENERAL BACKGROUND

Pursuant to Rule 5.30 of the Instream Flow Rules, 2 CCR 408-2, the attached 22 stream segments
are being recommended to the Board for Final Action. These stream segments have been noticed
pursuant to Rules 5.21, 5.22 and 5.24 and the public was afforded an opportunity to comment
pursuant to those Rules. Trout Unlimited (TU) filed a Notice to Contest for each of these
recommendations. After discussions with staff, TU agreed to withdraw its Notices to Contest
contingent on (1) the Board filing water ri~ts applications for the reaches and in the amounts
described in the staffs recommendations; and (2) the staffs agreement to consider enlargement of
the flow amounts in the future if the recomIllended flows were reduced due to water availability
concerns and it is later determined that more water is available than was suggested by the staffs
availability analysis. These stream segments are located in Water Divisions 3, 5 and 6 and
Saguache, Garfield, Eagle, Routt, Pitkin and Rio Blanco Counties and are listed on the attached
Instream Flow Tabulations.

TECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS

The Board was provided detailed information regarding all field data, studies and analyses for each
stream segment and natural lake at the January 22,2003, Board meeting. At that meeting the Board
declared its intent to appropriate the specific Instream Flow water rights.

Natural Enviromnent Studies
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have
conducted field surveys on these streams and found a natural enviromnent, which can be preserved.
To quantify the resources and to evaluate instream flow and natural lake level requirements, the

Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning