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. Department of Natural Resources October 6, 1997 Page 3 Disagreement has focused on how much water should be set aside for future human needs and under what circumstances the board's instream flow right would be enforced against other water rights. As proposed, the board would allow at least 100,000 acre feet of new water development to occur before enforcing its peak flow right. (An acre foot of water is about the amount an average household of four people uses in a year.) The board would also reserve the option of modifying its peak flow right to allow an additional 300,000 acre feet of development if room to develop that much remains under the terms of the Colorado River and Upper Colorado River compacts. These compacts set forth the amount of water that must be delivered to other states. The Oct. 2 meeting participants also agreed that Lochhead should communicate the group's progress to USFWS Regional Director Ralph Morgenweck and environmental community leaders to assure that the solutions explored by the water users will be acceptable to other Recovery Program partners. "Support for the Recovery Program from Colorado water users and environmental interests is crucial, if we want to maintain these broader interstate opportunities to save endangered species and to avoid regulatory conflicts," Lochhead said. The Recovery Program is a partnership created in 1988 among the states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, the USFWS, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Western Area Power Administration, environmental groups and water development interests. Program participants have agreed to develop and implement a plan to re-establish self-sustaining populations of four fish species that are protected within the Upper Colorado River Basin under the federal ESA. These four species -- Colorado squawfish, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub -- are not found outside the basin. Colorado's participation in the Recovery Program has enabled 120 water development projects to move forward without litigation or opposition by federal agencies. ###