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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 002597 Plan of Study SUB-TASK 43: De6ne Water Rilmts and Modellrm Approach 29 Purpose In this sub-task the water rights structure of the Yampa River basin will be documented and compact considerations will be addressed. Information regarding the water rights structure of the basin will be required for the evaluation of the Junlper-Cross Mountain water rights in Sub-task 4e, as well as for the development of the basin model in Sub-task 4f. Certain aspects of the modeling approach also will be defined in this sub-task, including the handling of subordinations and the representation of significant existing projects. The treatment of conditional water rights and existing projects which were included in the USFWS environmental baseline will be identified in this sub-task and a Modified Environmental Baseline defined. Approach 1) The water rights structure of the basin will be documented from review of State Engineer water rights and diversion records, review of previous studies which addressed water rights issues, and from discussions with water commissioners, local water managers, and TSC members. Controlling water rights in the basin will be identified along with all existing subordinations. The actual or planned operation of subordinations and exchanges will be determined. 2) Interstate water delivery considerations, as embodied in the various compacts controlling water allocations from the Colorado River, will be reviewed in consultation with CWCB staff and other TSC members to determine the nature of any compact constraints which must be addressed in the study. 3) With TSC members, the existing subordinations of the Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights which were identified in Step 1 will be reviewed and alternative methods for their implementation and administration will be formulated. A summary of this information will be provided to the TSC which will adopt an assumption regarding the implementation and administration of the existing subordinations. Based on this assumption, a modeling approach to represent the existing subordinations will be developed. The information developed here also will serve as the basis for the analysis of water rights transfer issues in Sub-task 4e. 4) The existing projects in the basin will be reviewed to determine which, if any, might be utilized as a component of the projects to be formulated in Task 6. Depletions for existing projects which may be considered as components of studied projects must be removed from the baseline flow data which are to be developed in Sub-task 4d. 5) Based on the results of Sub-task 4b, other conditional water rights, if any, will be identified which were included in the USFWS environmental baseline flow data. These water rights will be treated as senior to the Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights and left in the Modified Environmental Baseline. c .1L