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~iI/ ::'1' Canyon water going to cities Peds to sell Gunnison rights By Theo Stein Uenver Post Environment Writer Bowing to pressure from Colorado officials, the Interior Department has agreed to sacrifice the roaring spring floods that carved the Black Canyon of the Gunnison so the water can be sold to tbirsty Front Range cities. state and federal officials hailed tbe agree- ment, wbicb tbey said will belp restore tbe natu- ral rise and fall of the river tbrough the 14-mile Black Canyon of tbe Gunnison National Park while preserving chances for economic growth. "Hopefully this puts a period at the end of a generation of dispute," said Greg Walcher, direc- tor of the state Department of Natural Resourc- es. Walcber called tbe deal a historic victory for state water interests, But environmental groups plan to challenge the agreement, wbich was negotiated in secret. Please see CANYON on 58 Environmentalists to challenge Gunnison River accord CANYON from Page 1 B Tbey say tbe deal will cut tbe beart out of tbe spectacular gorge, which lost its channel-re- storing floods when Blue Mesa Reservoir came on line in 1965. Former state aod federal attor- neys said the deal amounts to an uoprecedented federal giveaway that has dire implications for oth- er federal water cases. Former Department of Natural Resources chief David Getches, now a University Df Colorado law professor, called it extraordinary. "If they're going to do this across the board, then it's a huge retreat," added John Leshy, a Clin- on-era Interior Department aUor- oy who worked on the case. Indeed, Int"l ior Secretary Gale Norton said the decision reflects . the administration's intent to let states set natural resource poli- cies on federai land. For more than 12 million years, the Gunnison River sliced through a thick layer of soft volcanic rock, creating the dark, brooding gorge whose roaring spring melts prompted Congress to declare it a national monument in 1933. The pulses of high and low flows creat- ed sandbars where willows root- ed, as well as logjams that shel- tered lunker trout. But the only roaring lately has come from the fight over the riv- er's future. Since the Blue Mesa Reservoir gates closed in 19"5, the Gunnison has become one' the most cher- ished - and contested - Western streams. Anglers prize the gold-medal trout fishery, and kay- akers thrill to the surging rapids, Scientists trying to restore habi- tat for four endangered fish say the river needs more water. But drought-bitten water devel- opers want to pump and pipe mil- lions of gallons a year across the Continental Divide for cities like Aurora and Colorado Springs. Under the new accord, the gov- ernment will give up its 1933 wa- ter right, awarded by a state judge in Montrose in 1978. That ruling put park needs ahead of oth- er users, spurring a flood of objec- tions from thousands of farmers, . ranchers, utilities and cities that could have lost the water they had tapped for decades because they made claims after 1933. Instead, the Park Service wauts give up all but 300 cuhic feet per second, the minimum fiow al- ready protected by the state, The Colorado Water Conservation Board will file for peak flood-fiow rights, but with a 2003 priority date. That means the park will get only the water left over from other users. State Attorney General Ken Salazar said Front Range cities could still divert much of the re- maining "unappropriated" water in the three-reservoir Aspinall project, which is run by the Bu- reau of Reclamation. Park Service deputy director Randy Jones said the deal will guarantee enough water at the right time of year to approximate the natural river regime. \, o 0 1 '/8 6