The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Flushing out heavy metals and sediment
The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) recently voted to set a minimum water level for flows in Oh Be Joyful Creek and Slate River, as well as Hot Springs Creek east of Gunnison, through the spring and early summer months.
The CWCB made its vote Tuesday, January 28 on the recommendation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to protect the high water flows over more than 1.5 miles of Oh Be Joyful and on 3.69 miles of the upper portion of the Slate River.
According to the BLM’s recommendation, the Slate River between Oh Be Joyful Creek and Poverty Gulch has a population of trout that have suffered in places from “poor pool development,” due to the way sediment is deposited during times of low water, and the cascading ill-effects from excessive concentrations of heavy metals that are attributed to the area’s “historic mining activities.”
The recommendation says, “The nonconsumptive water needs assessment performed by the Basin Roundtable identified this stream segment as having significant riparian communities worthy of protection.”
To support their recommendation, staff from the BLM and Colorado Parks and Wildlife analyzed data to determine how much water was needed “to protect the fishery and natural environment to a reasonable degree.”
They found that the upper section of the Slate River needs a flow of 45 cubic feet per second (cfs) between May 1 and July 15 in order to maintain a level of quality habitat.
“This creek experiences consistently low flows during late summer and fall, so it is important to protect as much physical habitat as possible during the limited time when snowmelt runoff flows are available,” the recommendation says. “In addition, protection of a higher flow rate will help scour fine sediments from important spawning areas.”
Already the Slate has an instream flow water right of 15 cfs during the month of April and the same amount guaranteed between July 16 and November 30. Between December 1 and March 31, the river has a right to 8 cfs.
The board voted to keep an additional 30 cfs in the river between May 1 and July 15 to keep with the BLM’s recommendation.
Also in the BLM’s recommendation, many of the same attributes are given to Oh Be Joyful, which is a tributary to the Slate River and has a year-round instream flow water right of 3 cfs. But as much as 17 cfs are needed in high water periods to maintain the quality of the aquatic environment, the BLM recommendation says.
So on the BLM’s recommendation, Oh Be Joyful will be guaranteed an additional 14 cfs between May 1 and July 15, when high water velocity and volume will help clean the creek bottom. An additional 3 cfs will be left in the creek during the pre-runoff period in April.
“Given that very limited physical habitat is available during most of the year on this creek, any flows that provide expanded physical habitat should be protected,” according to the BLM recommendation.
Another 3 cfs is also being returned to the creek in mid summer, between July 16 and August 15, when more water can prevent dangerously high temperatures. The flow can “help ensure that sufficient physical habitat is available during the highest feeding and growth period of the year,” the recommendation says.
High County Citizens’ Alliance water director Jennifer Bock says, “High flows are a key to a healthy river system—they create new habitat for fish and they help maintain riparian vegetation, not to mention the benefits for boating and scenic values.”
According to a press release, “HCCA staff and board members surveyed the Slate River with the BLM in 2012 and 2013 and helped organize a meeting of local stakeholders with water rights and property interests on the Slate.”
The organization also passed along a letter to the CWCB from 24 local businesses supporting the added protections.
“Augmented instream flow protection for Oh Be Joyful and the Slate River will guarantee that gains in water quality remediation made by the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition and the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety are not threatened by low flows,” the HCCA release says.
The instream water right is similar to other water rights and will have to take its place in the hierarchy of first-come, first-served water rights. So if there’s any kind of restriction on local water users, Oh Be Joyful and the Slate will be the first to suffer.
