BOARD02377

• Board Meeting Date: 7/13/1998
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - 15-Mile Reach Recovery Water Rights - Cases No. 5-95CW296 and 5-95CW297
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
721 Centennial Building
, 313 Sherman Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

STATE OF COLORADO

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MEMORANDUM

Roy Romer
Governor

James $. Lochhead
Executive Director, DNR
oaries Clile. P.E.
Director, eweB
Peter H. Ev.ms
Acting Director, eweB

TO:

CWCB Instream Flow Mailing List
IS-Mile Reach Objectors

FROM: Peter Evans
Acting Director
Randy Seaholm
Chief, Interstate Streams Investigations Section

DATE: May 18, 1998

SUBJECT: Colorado Water Conservation Board Endangered Fish Instream Flow
Water Right Applications on Colorado and Yampa Rivers

At a May 4, 1998 meeting hosted by Jim Lochhead, Executive Director of the
Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service outlined
elements of a programmatic Biological Opinion containing a so-called "reasonable and
prudent alternative" that satisfies the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
Significantly, the elements of the so-called "reasonable and prudent alternative" did not
include adjudication of the Colorado Water Conservation Board's 1995 endangered fish
instream flow water right applications for the IS-Mile Reach of the Colorado River. This
raised the issue of whether or not the Colorado Water Conservation Board should
continue pursuit of those applications, and similar ones on the Yampa, or withdraw them
given the apparent lack of support by many parties for these controversial applications.

Withdrawing the endangered fish instream flow water right applications and
failing to obtain meaningful instream flows could create a dilemma for Upper Colorado
River Endangered Fish Recovery Program participants. Both the Recovery Program and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service view a permanent dedication of water to protect the
endangered fish as essential to the recovery of the fish and eventual delisting. Also,
water must remain dedicated to the endangered fish long after the interstate agreement
governing the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program expires.
Without a state water right to protect instream flow, other mechanisms must be developed
to secure water for the endangered fish, such as long-term water contracts between
individual water users and the state.

At the Colorado Water Conservation Board's May 11-12, 1998 meeting, the
Board asked that we open discussion on whether or not to withdraw one or more of the
four outstanding applications and provide a status report at the July 13-14, 1998 Board