Laserfiche WebLink
<br />, . <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In 1978 a Colorado water judge awarded the Park Service a water right to <br />"conserve and maintain in an unimpaired condition the scenic, aesthetic, natural, and <br />historic objects of the monument, as well as [its] wildlife." The judge directed the federal <br />government to return to court to quantify and finalize this water right. <br /> <br />The Park Service's quantification application, filed in January 2001, sought a <br />natural flow regime, with both base flows of300 cubic feet per second (cfs) and higher <br />spring peak flows as high as 12,000 cfs. In addition to assuring the protection of the <br />Park's scenic and ecological values, the proposal would benefit the Gunnison's world- <br />class trout fishery and four other fish species in the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers listed <br />under the federal Endangered Species Act. <br /> <br />Peternell explained that the problem with the CWCB's in-stream flow program is <br />that new in-stream flow appropriations are assigned the most junior priority. In times of <br />water shortage, other more senior water rights are satisfied before ajunior in-stream flow <br />right takes any water. "There just isn't enough water left in the Gunnison for a new <br />CWCB in-stream flow to provide the kind of protection our fisheries and environment <br />need, the kind of protection the federal right would have provided." <br />I <br /> <br />, <br />Peternell said that under the proposed plan, water that is being stored in upstream <br />federal dams, to which the national park is legally entitled, could instead be delivered to <br />developers and irrigators to be sprinkled on bluegrass lawns and alfalfa fields hundreds of <br />miles away. "Diverting water out of the Gunnison before it ever reaches the Black <br />Canyon would be devastating not only for the aesthetic qualities of the national park, but <br />for the fish, animals and plant life that depend upon healthy flows in the river. We will <br />consider legal action to try to stop the federal plan from going into effect." <br /> <br />Melinda Kasscn, director of the Trout Unlimited Colorado Water Project, said <br />that U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's decision to reduce the water right for the <br />Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park "cuts the heart out of the park. Our <br />concern is that the Interior Department will use this as a model to further dewater our <br />National Parks, our National Forests, and our National Wildlife Refuges. If they do, fish, <br />animals, plants and the recreational value of these places will suffer immensely." <br /> <br />-- 30n <br /> <br />Trollt Unlimited, tile nation's leading coldwaterconservation organization, is dedicated to the <br />conservation, protection and restoration of trollt and salmon resollrces and their watersheds" The <br />organization has over 130,000 members in North America, inclllding 8,000 members in Colorado. <br /> <br />002348 <br />