BOARD02446

• Board Meeting Date: 7/26/1999
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - 15-Mile Reach ESA Section 7 Consultation - Status Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department ofNatnral Resources
I3I3 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.dnr.state.co.us/cwcb

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Memorandum

Bill Owens
Governor

GTegE. Walcher
Executive Director

To:

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Peter Evans \?h ~
Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Peter H. Evans
CWCB Director

From:

Date: 25 July, 1999

Re: Agenda Item 13(1), July 26-27,1999 Meeting
IS-MILE REACH ESA SECTION 7 CONSULTATION- Status Report

This topic is included for information purposes; no action is recommended at this time.
However, action may be recommended in the near future, These recommendations are likely to
be presented in the form of a resolution concerning a programmatic Biological Opinion developed
by the Fish and Wildlife Service in coordination with the Recovery Program for Endangered Fish
Species of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Board should also expect to be asked to
support, fund and implement specific recovery actions.

Back2round. Discussions among Recovery Program participants to reconcile the FWS
flow recommendations with Colorado's development projection for Colorado River water
supplies began over four years agol. Since the Recovery Program's Implementation Committee
asked us to facilitate these discussions, we have been met with 30-40 representatives of Colorado
water and environmental interests in various groups at least 30 times.

Since we reported to you last May on this topic, the FWS distributed a second preliminary
draft dated June 28 available for discussion of the proposed programmatic Biological Opinion
(PB02). This draft included many of the suggestions from Colorado water and environmental
interests as well as a few surprises requested by the Bureau of Reclamation and was discussed by
a large group of water users at a meeting in Glenwood Springs on July 8. Participation in that

1 In 1995, the FWS produced flow recommendations for the 15 Mile-Reach that suggested optimum habitat conditions for the endangered fish may
require approximately 200-400 KAF more water than is often available today at that point in the river. That same year, CWCB convened an ad hoc
workgroup to assist in developing a projection offuture uses of Colorado River water supplies as a guide in designing endangered fish recovery
instream flow water right applications. That projection suggested that most, ifnot all, of Colorado's remaining allocation of Colorado River water
supplies may be developed upstream of the IS-Mile Reach, based upon CUtrent demographic and economic trends and the unused capacity of existing
infrastructure.
= The "Preliminary Draft Preliminllf). Biological Opinion for Funding and Implementation of Recovery Program Actions and Water Depletions in the
Upper Colorado River Above the Confluence with the Gunnison River" is hased upon a "may affect" detennination with respect to the pikeminnow
(a.k.a. "SQuawfish"). humpback chub. oom1ail and razorback sucker.

Flood Control and Floodplain Management -Larry Lang, Chief. Water Project: Planning and Construction- Mike Serlet, Chief. Instream
Flows and Water Rights Investigations-Dan Merriman, Chief. Interstate Streams Investigations-Randy Seaholm, Chief. Office of
Conservation Planning- William Stanton, Chief. Personnel and Budget -Susan Maul, Chief