Upper Colorado River Plagued by Low Flows

Solutions Sought by CTU, Grand County & Colorado River Water Conservancy District

The Upper Colorado River Basin was plagued by low water flows this past fall which led to high temperatures in the river with fish congregating in pools from Granby down to Kremmling. If several ranchers who had senior water rights had decided to use them fully, stretches of the river would have been left bone dry.

This situation was caused by the Bureau of Reclamation cutting its flows back to 21 cfs from Granby Reservoir and Denver Water releasing water from the Wolford Reservoir instead of the Williams Fork Reservoir further upstream near Parshall. While Denver Water did ultimately release more water from the Williams Reservoir, after an alarm was raised by Grand County and Trout Unlimited, there still was a shortfall of water from Granby down to Parshall.

Subsequently, Trout Unlimited and Grand County met with the Bureau of Reclamation, Denver Water and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District to figure out what happened and how this situation could be avoided in the future. Not surprisingly each of the water providers said it wasn’t their fault and that they didn’t have a key to a solution. The Bureau of Reclamation wasn’t able to justify their decision to cut back the flow to 21 cfs (made in 1961 with no accompanying documentation); when under operating the Colorado-Big Thompson Project they are responsible for protecting both the Colorado River’s irrigation rights and its fisheries.

Grand County has embarked on a stream management plan to get a better handle on what the water needs for the county are. This project will provide background research of methodologies, approaches, data needs and availability necessary for identifying critical reaches relative to stream health.  Based on this initial research the project will provide flow prescriptions where necessary data is available. In those critical reaches where existing data is not adequate, the project will develop a framework to identify problematic stream reaches and recommend scientifically-valid approaches to determine flow solutions to address instream flow and other aquatic habitat issues.

Grand County contributed $30,000  and the Colorado Basin 1177 Roundtable Basin kicked in another another $30,000 to fund the first phase of the plan which will be completed by the end of  March. Colorado Trout Unlimited and Grand County have asked the Bureau of Recreation to delay the release of their Windy Gap Firming Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement until the steam management plan is completed and can be incorporated into their analysis of the project’s impacts and operations, and into designing mitigation that will be needed to protect the health of streams

The Colorado Water Conservancy District and Trout Unlimited also asked Colorado State Water Engineer Hal Simpson to determine whether the water rights for the Windy Gap Firming Project would have to be revisited in Water Court as another reservoir would need to be built on the Front Range and the mechanism of transferring Windy Gap Firming Project water is unclear.  Mr. Simpson in a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation stated that the water rights do not have to be looked at again – and several West Slope entities and Trout Unlimited are now considering whether to pursue legal remedies to Mr. Simpson’s decision.