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<br />" . <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />Stream: Oil Creek <br /> <br />Se~ment: Headwaters to Fourmile Creek <br /> <br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />Upper Terminus: Headwaters at (Latitude: 38050' 17") (Longitude: 105005' 59") <br />Lower Terminus: Fourmile Creek at (Latitude 380 50' 22") (Longitude 1050 10' 29") <br />Counties: Teller <br />Length: 5,5 Miles <br />USGS Quad(s): Pikes Peak and Cripple Creek North <br />Flow Recommendation: 1,80 cfs (May 15th - June 30th) <br />0,75 cfs (July 1st - October 14th) <br />0,30 cfs (October 15th - April 14th) <br />0.75 cfs (April 15th - May 14th) <br /> <br />Summary <br /> <br />The information contained in this report and the associated instream flow file folder for Oil <br />Creek forms the basis for staffs instream flow recommendation to be considered by the Board, <br />It is staffs opinion that the information contained is this report is sufficient to support the <br />findings required in Rule 5.40, <br /> <br />Colorado's Instream Flow Program was created in 1973 when the Colorado State Legislature <br />recognized "the need to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of <br />the natural environment" (see !l 37-92-102 (3) c.R.S,), The statue vests the CWCB with the <br />exclusive to appropriate and acquire instream flow and natural lake-level water rights, In order <br />to encourage other entities to participate in Colorado's Instream Flow Program, the statue directs <br />the CWCB to request instream flow recommendations from other state and federal agencies, The <br />Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recommended this segment of Oil Creek to the CWCB for <br />inclusion into the Instream Flow Program. Oil Creek is being considered for inclusion into the <br />Instream Flow Program because it has a natural environment that can be preserved to a <br />reasonable degree with an instream flow water right. This recommendation is important to the <br />BLM management objectives because the agency does not want to reverse the significant <br />improvements in stream condition that have been achieved and functional fisheries in this <br />historic mining area are scarce, <br /> <br />Oil Creek is a tributary of Fourmile Creek a tributary of the Arkansas River. It is approximately <br />7,5 miles long, It begins on the northwest side of Pikes Peak in Pike National Forest, at an <br />elevation of approximately 12,180 feet, and terminates at the confluence with Fourmile Creek <br />near Midland, at an elevation of approximately 8,900 feet. It flows through federal lands (Pike <br />National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands), state lands (Mueller State Park) as well <br />as private lands, It also begins and ends in Tener County, The total drainage area of Oil Creek <br />is approximately 14 square miles, Oil Creek generally flows in an east to west direction, <br /> <br />The subject of this report is a 7,5 mile segment of Oil Creek beginning at headwaters and <br />extending downstream to the confluence with Fourmile Creek (See Figure I), This segment is <br />located north of the City of Cripple Creek, To date, staff has received and considered only one <br />in stream flow recommendation for this segment of Oil Creek, That recommendation is discussed <br />in detail below, <br />