WSP03985

• File Number: 8200.765
• Description: Little Snake River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 4/20/1990
• Author: Western Water Consul
• Title: Report on Modeling Approach and Project Configurations for Little Snake River Depletion Study
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND
In January 1988, the Secretary of the Interior; the Governors of Colorado, Utah,

and Wyoming; and the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration entered

into a cooperative agreement on the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered

Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin (Recovery Program). The overall goal

of the Recovery Program is to recover three federally listed endangered fishes, the

Colorado squawfish, humpback chub, and bonytail chub, and to manage the razorback

sucker so that it will not require listing under the Endangered Species Act. The

cooperative agreement established a lO-member Implementation Committee to oversee the

Recovery Program, and at its August 31, 1989 semi-annual meeting, that committee called

for more emphasis on water rights acquisition activities.

The Yampa River Basin including the Little Snake River and its tributaries has

been designated as the first priority for the investigation of water rights acquisition under

the Recovery Program. The Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Mining Company (P&M) has

expressed an interest in trading some of its Little Snake River water rights so they can be

dedicated to instream habitat, while the Colorado River Water ConseIVation District

(CRWCD) has indicated a willingness to make available its Powder Wash and Pot Hook

water rights in the Little Snake basin for the same purpose.

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