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.. ,,~, o. -. The Gunnison River begins where the East River and Taylor River join in Almont, Colorado. From there it flows downstream through Gunnison, Colorado and surrounding agricultural lands into Blue Mesa Reservoir, a distance of about 25 miles. Blue Mesa is the largest and most upstream reservoir of the three reservoirs comprising the Aspinall Storage Unit. After leaving Crystal Dam, the last of the three Aspinall Storage Unit Reservoirs, the river flows about 2 miles downstream to the Gunnison Tunnel diversion and then beyond into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument. From Crystal Dam to the Gunnison River confluence with the North Fork of the Gunnison is a distance of approximately 30 miles and all but the last mile or so is through a deeply incised river gorge. The current National Monument protects about half of this spectacular canyon section. Efforts by residents of the Gunnison Basin to conserve this unique landscape and the vast recreational resource it provides through the designation of the area as a National Park date back to at least 1985. The most recent efforts to create this National Park were unsuccessful in large part because agreement could not be reached on a complicated set of water right issues associated with the proposed wild and scenic river segment downstream of the Aspinall Unit and on the proposed wilderness area adjacent to it. The concerns related mostly to the ability to change or make new uses of water upstream after the wild and scenic river was established. S. 1424 removes the Wild and Scenic River and Wilderness Area designations which were the major features of the previous BiII that generated issues of concern for water users. The removal of the Wilderness Area and Wild and Scenic River designation are significant concessions which in combination with the language in Section 6 of the BiII should alleviate many of the water user concerns. However, we recognize that these concessions will more than likely create opposition from local environmental organizations who desire stronger more formal protections for the area. , To help protect this unique and beautiful area at the state level, the Board has successfully acquired a water right decree changing the first 300 cfs of the 800 cfs conditional Rabbit Gulch Canal water right, donated to the Board by the Nature Conservancy and the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company, to an instream flow through the Black Canyon. This water right decree will protect 300 cfs of bypass releases made from the Aspinall Unit through the Black Canyon and down to the confluence with the North Fork of the Gunnison. The Colorado Division of Wildlife and others have indicated that at least 300 cfs is required to preserve the natural to a reasonable degree. The Bureau of Reclamation holds the water storage decrees for the Aspinall Unit reservoirs and operates them in accord with the Colorado River Storage Project authorizing legislation. In addition, the Board is working with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation on a water service cQlltract that would help bring closure to the issue of quantification of the Federal Reserved Water Right that has been decreed to the National 2 000427