The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
State considers BLM recommendations
Seasonal instream water flows in the Slate River, Oh Be Joyful Creek and Hot Springs Creek may receive additional state protection if recommendations for 2014 water appropriations are approved.
The protections would leave more water in the river and creeks to support fish and other aquatic organisms.
Working in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has put together a comprehensive report on the current flows, hydrology and water rights existing in the mentioned waterways.
From this report the organization is suggesting a water rights appropriation that would more than double the current protected instream flow on the reach of the Slate from Poverty Gulch to Oh Be Joyful Creek, and would more than triple protected flows in the stretch of water between Oh Be Joyful Creek and Coal Creek.
“The BLM wants to protect the flows in the Slate River for a variety or reasons, which include a commitment to working in historic mining districts, and to facilitate community-based efforts to remediate water quality impacts from historic mining activities,” said BLM water rights specialist Roy Smith. “Currently the flows are too low to fully support biologic functions during runoff months,” which are from May 1 to July 5.
On Oh Be Joyful Creek the recommended appropriation would bolster instream flow from 3.0 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 6.05 cfs from April 1 to April 31 and then bump that protection to a total of 17.1 cfs from May 1 to July 15.
According to Smith, Oh Be Joyful Creek has a relatively low flow year-round, and the appropriation would help protect the cold-water fishery that exists there especially during the warm summer months.
“The appropriation we’re recommending is well within what the creek’s flows can accommodate,” said Smith. “Our goal is to protect instream flows into the future.”
If the CWCB accepts the BLM’s recommendations, a junior water right will be granted. This water right will serve to keep water in the river or creek channels, protecting it from other new water requests that could be used for agriculture or mining.
According to Jeff Baessler, deputy section chief for the CWCB, instream water rights are nonconsumptive, in-channel or in-lake uses of water made exclusively by the CWCB for minimum flows between specific points on a stream or levels in natural lakes. These rights are administered within the state’s water right priority system to preserve or improve the natural environment to a reasonable degree and to guarantee minimum flows.
The CWCB is currently accepting public input on the recommendation. For more information, visit http://cwcb.state.co.us.
