From email from the Colorado Water Conservation Board (Rob Viehl):
A draft report by Professor John Loomis and Jeff Ballweber of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University entitled “Cost Savings Associated with the Upper Colorado River Basin Endangered Fish Recovery Program, Instream Flows, and Prospects for the Future” is now available on the CWCB website for public comment. The report investigates the role of instream flows as part of a program to protect and recover certain water-dependent endangered species. The authors looked at two sub-projects of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (“Recovery Program”) – the Upper Colorado’s 15-Mile Reach and the Elkhead Reservoir enlargement in the Yampa River Basin – as useful examples of the CWCB’s role in the Recovery Program and of the Recovery Program’s ability to recover species in a cooperative manner that also allows for water development. In addition to identifying the potential economic benefits of ISF water rights in the context of threatened and endangered species protection, the report also provides valuable information on cost savings, saved work hours and reduced project delays resulting from the Recovery Program itself. The report also evaluates scenarios involving increased instream flows to estimate what the cost savings might be to water developers from additional instream flow appropriations and acquisitions by the CWCB.
Please direct all comments and questions to Linda Bassi, Section Chief, Stream and Lake Protection, CWCB at Linda.Bassi@state.co.us by close of business on August 25th, 2010.
Click here to download the report. More endangered species coverage here.