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<br />SCOPING REPORT <br />GUNNISON RIvER CONTRACI' <br /> <br />CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />A. Background <br /> <br />In the 1982 Colorado State water rights adjudication of the United States v. Denver, 656 <br />P.2d I, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument (Black Canyon) was decreed <br />a conditio11al, Federal reserved instream flow water right on the Gunnison River with a 1933 <br />priority date. A proposal to supply water to the Black Canyon by means of a water delivery <br />contract from the Federal Reclamation project reservoirs of the Wayne N. Aspinall Unit <br />(Aspinall Unit), located immediately upstream from the Black Canyon, was stimulated by the <br />need to quantify that right and proposals to develop large amounts of water in the Gunnison <br />River Basin. In January 1991, the Bureau of Reclamation (BaR), Natio11al Park Service <br />(NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />(CWCB) began examining the possibility of providing a long-term water supply to the Black <br />Canyon and the downstream Gunnison Gorge from Blue Mesa Reservoir. It was agreed that <br />such a contract should be seriously considered, and the agencies' intent to pursue negotiating <br />a water delivery contract was announced by BaR's Commissioner in December 1991. <br /> <br />To initiate activities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), scoping for the <br />contract proposal commenced in the spring of 1992 and involved participation by each of the <br />above agencies. Also in the spring, BOR began providing flows from the Aspinall Unit to <br />assist in studies on the effects of the Aspinall Unit operation on downstream endangered fish, <br />pursuant to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the "Recovery Implementation <br />Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin." The goal of this <br />program is to recover the endangered Colorado squawfish, razortJack sucker, humpback <br />chub, and bonytail chub in the Colorado River and its tributaries such as the Gunnison River. <br />Historically, these species were known to have occurred in the Gunnison River, primarily <br />below its confluence with the Uncompahgre River at Delta, Colorado and downstream from <br />both the Black Canyon and the Gunnison Gorge. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) <br />participated in the scoping effort to help address questions relevant to endangered fish issues. <br /> <br />Formerly the Curecanti Unit, the Aspinall Unit was authorized by the 1956 Colorado River <br />Storage Project Act. The Aspinall Unit assists Colorado and the other Upper Basin States <br />(Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico) in utilizing their apportionment of Colorado River water <br />while meeting obligations to deliver water to tlJe Lower Basin States (California, Arizona, <br />Nevada, and New Mexico) and Mexico, as agreed to by the 1922 Colorado River Compact <br />andthe 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (Compact entitlement). The Aspinall <br />Unit developed the water storage and hydroelectric power generating potential along a 40- <br />mile. section of the Gunnison River by the construction of three dams and powerplants: Blue <br />Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal. The dams and powerplants of the three reservoirs are <br /> <br />. I <br />