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<br />OJ:>portunities to Enhance River Flows <br /> <br />Ruedi Reservoir <br /> <br />There are existing and proposed projects which have been and will be used to enhance flows in <br />the IS-Mile Reach. The Biological Opinion for Ruedi Reservoir Round II Water Sales, June IS, <br />1987, requires 5,000 acre-feet (af) of water be.made available annually as instream flows to <br />preserve habitat in the IS-Mile Reach. The Biological Opinion also required that through <br />Reoperation an additional 5,000 afto be made available on an average of at least 4-out-of-5 years <br />in the months of July through October. Since 1991, Reclamation has annually made an additional <br />10,000 afavailable to the Service to augment flows in the IS-Mile Reach of the Colorado River. <br />The additional 10,000 af is not a requirement but has been made available to the Recovery <br />Program since contracts do not exist for all marketable Ruedi storage at this time, As part of the <br />Ruedi Round II water marketing program, Reclamation has agreed to provide all remaining water <br />after the Round II sales (21,650 at) on an interim basis not to exceed 15 years. This would make <br />up to 31,650 af ofRuedi water available to the Recovery Program to use for augmentation <br />purposes and recovery of the endangered Colorado River fishes, Because of problems <br />implementing this commitmeht, Reclamation, the Service, and the State of Colorado are <br />discussing alternative proposals which could make less than 31,650 af available for endangered <br />fish purposes on a permanent basis rather than for 15 years. Converting the fish passage flow <br />requirement to acre-feet per day results in a storage need of 200 af. Therefore, Ruedi Reservoir <br />could supply water to the passageway for 50 days (10,000 at) to 158 days (31,600 at). There are <br />some operational restrictions on Ruedi Reservoir that will more than likely limit the ability to <br />deliver storage water; however, up to 20,000 afhas been delivered to the IS-Mile Reach from <br />Ruedi Reservoir in the past. <br /> <br />Orchard Mesa Check Settlement <br /> <br />In addition to the storage available in Ruedi Reservoir, the recent settlement in the Orchard Mesa <br />Check water right case and the proposed Grand Valley Water Management improvement <br />program, could provide approximately 60,000 afto enhance river flows on an average annual <br />basis, <br /> <br />The ability to use stored water in Ruedi Reservoir coupled with the Orchard Mesa check <br />settlement and Grand Valley Water Management system improvements will increase the frequency <br />of providing the required fish passage structure flows. The exact increase in frequency has not <br />been completely resolved since many of the issues regarding the three sources have not been <br />resolved. However, based upon historic record and up to 90,000 af of water potentially available <br />to enhance flows, water supply for the passage is believed to be adequate. <br /> <br />Based upon Table 1 there will be adequate flows to provide 100 cfs for fish passage about 83 <br />percent of the time during the months of Aprirthrough November. Without the improvements to <br />permit fish passage, passage would be possible 7 percent of the time during the same period, <br /> <br />B-4 <br />