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~ Ill lllillllllllllll ~ CANYON:. Park service officials say they have proof proposal will work > Continued from Page One 1933 - is develophtg a long-term plan to increase high water releases from dams hr the Aspinall Unit [o re-create natural midsummer flows fltrough the canyon. Park service officials say they have proof the proposal will be suc- cessful. Since 1991, the park service and Bureau of Reclamation have simulated natural peak flows by re- leasing high water from the dants every summer. Tfte process has proven effective, and park service o@icials hope to coutinue the pro- cess indefmitely. "The flows we're talking about are the flows that we have seen in the past few years," park service hy- drologist Mark Wondzel said. "So we're not talking about anything new." When the park service publicly unveiled the plan recently. down- stream water users, government agencies and landowners reacted nervously. Some feared high water releases from Asputall Unit dazns would return widespread floodutg to riverside communities miles downstream. Pazk se[vice officials say they can restore the natural flows through the Slack Canyon without harmhtg thew downstream neighbors. "Were not going to be Bonding people downstream," Wmtdzel said. "We went in, put on our blinders for a minute, and looked specifically at what we needed for the resources we are protecting. What we found is that the resource needs a more natu- ral hydrograph. Then we turned around and put it on the table for the public so we could address their concerns." The Gunnison River has been managed by the Bureau of Reclama- tion to limit flooding and supply the region with hydroelectric power and irrigation water. Until recently. little thought was given to the needs of the dark, rocky canyon. Dams released almost steady water flows through the yeaz, slowing the river's speed and litnit- inghigh water. Before dams stretched across the Gtumison River, water flows fed by snowmelt increased in the spring, reached a sudden peak for two .weeks in the summer, then fell off as mountain streams dried up later in the yeaz. The peak flows, dependent wail the federal government built ttte Aspinal] Unit, he said, Local farmers will likely lose precious farmland to the high water proposed by the pazk service, he said. "The dams have created good fishing, controlled a lot of the ero- siat on the banks and they have eliminated flooding." Graff said. "(The proposal) is plumb ridiculous. Even ff it doesn't flood, we'll get a lot of erosion." The federal govertmtent should take measures to mitigate possible bank erosion, Graff said. "If they want ro do 'that, they ought to straighten out the channels and remove the gravel bars, so it will run straight on through (the Delta area);' Graffsaid. Rich Sales, commrmity develop- ment director for the city oC Delta, initially feared restoring natural flows would produce flooding in growing residential and business ar- eas near the Gunnison River. He was later "comforted" when the Bu- reau of Reclamation said it would abide by its mandate to provide flood control. Park se[vice officials also claim the peak flow in the canyon will be tinted to coincide with lower flows in other drainages to limit impacts further downstream. In 1984, Delta County was part of a 1Scomtty Presidential Declared Disaster area, cotmty emergency preparedness coordinator Duane Freeman said. The midsummer di- saster, when the Gtmnison River peaked at mote than 20.11(10 cis, cost close to a quarter of a million dollazs in victim assistance, he said. The most recent flood in 1995 sub- merged homes and fields along the Gunnison River for days. "City staff are going to recom- mend that they not call for any wa- ter any time it wotild aggravate flood situations in Delta;' Sales said, "and to let the Bureau of Reclama- tion go through the decision-making process with the sane priorities' they have now." The potential impact of a peak midsummer flow on recreation, is undetermined, Wondzel said, but the river's popular fisheries are like- ly to be undamaged by the proposal. "(The DOW is) on the record as saying it probably will not affect the fishery in the Gunnisat Gorge,". said Sherman Hebien, a Division of Wildlife biologist. Ant manavelr imnrnnerly. the. r