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<br />. <br /> <br />STATE~F COLORADO <br /> <br />- <br /> <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />721 Centennial Building <br />1 31 3 Sherman Street <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: 1303l 866-3441 <br />FAX: (303) 866-4474 <br /> <br />Roy Romer <br />Governor <br /> <br />Itlmes s. Lochheild <br />Executive Director, ONR <br /> <br />Daries C. Ule, PE. <br />Director, eWeB <br /> <br />Mareh 17, 1998 <br /> <br />Roy Smith <br />Instream Flow Coordinator <br />Bureau of Land Management <br />2850 Youngfield Street, Mail = CO-932 <br />Lakewood, CO 80215 <br /> <br />Subject: <br /> <br />Cottonwood Creek Water Availability Study and ISF Recommendations. <br /> <br />Dear Roy: <br /> <br />CWCB staff reviewed the BLM field data and stream flow data from the USGS gages loeated on <br />Cottonwood Creek near Nuda (ID# 09174500) San Miguel River near Plaeerville (ID# <br />09172500) and at Brooks Bridge near Nuda (ID# 09174600). <br /> <br />Cottonwood Creek. eonfluenee Little Cottonwood Creek to eonfluenee San Miguel River <br /> <br />Aeeording to gage reeords for the San Miguel River USGS gage, near Plaeerville, the flow <br />reeorded at this gauge on July 18, 1995, was 1170 efs or 804 efs above the Iuly monthly mean. <br />The Cottonwood Creek drainage basin is tributary to the San Miguel River drainage. This <br />eompiled with the Iuly 1995 Gunnison River and Dolores River Surfaee Water Supply Index <br />Values of 3.0 and 3.5 (attaehed), respectively, indieates that basin water supplies were normal to <br />above normal at the time of the BLM field survey. The BLM measured 1.5 efs on July 18,1995, <br />within this reaeh of stream. Gage reeords for the Cottonwood Creek USGS gage, near Pinon for <br />the period of reeord from 1942-51, show the median monthly flow ranges from a high of 17 cfs in <br />the month of May to a low of 0.1 efs from November through March. Aeeording to the State <br />Engineers Water Right Tabulation there are several diversions totaling 36.4 efs upstream of the <br />proposed instream flow reaeh along with 144 aere-feet of storage rights. <br /> <br />Based on the data above along with diseussions with the Division Engineers Offiee, the CWCB <br />feels water is not available for an Instream Flow appropriation without additional stream flow <br />data being eolleeted. Stafffeels an additional low flow eross seetion, August through March time <br />period would be benefieial in determining the instream flow needs of Cottonwood Creek. In <br />addition, any other wintertime diseharge measurements would help in the eonfirmation of <br />wintertime water availability. <br />