From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):
A state board has agreed to renew a lease with the Ute Water Conservancy District to boost local flows in the Colorado River later this year to benefit endangered fish.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board’s action this week comes despite concerns about impacts to recreational fishing in the Fryingpan River near Basalt. The water would come from Ruedi Reservoir, which is in the Fryingpan River Valley.
The CWCB is planning a meeting today at 4 p.m. at Eagle County’s El Jebel Community Center to hear and address those concerns.
The deal involves water Ute Water owns in Ruedi. The water is a backup supply for Ute Water as well as a source to meet potential new demand. Last year, the CWCB agreed to lease up to 12,000 acre-feet of water, and ended up using 9,000 acre-feet in September and October at a price of $7.20 per acre foot, or $64,800.
Last year’s one-year lease is renewable for up to five years.
Last year’s extra water boosted flows in what’s known as the 15-mile reach of the Colorado River upstream of its confluence of the Gunnison River, benefiting four endangered fish — the humpback chub, bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker.
The lease arrangement also provided some operational flexibility for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “and operators of other reservoirs that release water in late summer to benefit the endangered fish habitat,” according to a memo to the CWCB board from its staff.
The water also was run through the Ruedi Reservoir and Orchard Mesa Irrigation District hydropower plants, providing additional benefits, according to the memo.
On the minus side, CWCB has been hearing in recent weeks from angling interests who say more river in the Fryingpan makes it hard to wade in the river and also could affect hatches of aquatic insects, impacting trout in the river and the fishing. The Fryingpan is considered a world-class flyfishing river.
CWCB has agreed to keep the water releases below 300 cubic feet per second, but fishing advocates want them limited to 250 cfs.
CWCB staff member Ted Kowalski said the agency is willing to work with fishing interests to keep flows below 250 cfs where possible, depending on hydrology and how dry a year it is.
Kirk Webb, assistant manager of Taylor Creek Fly Shops in Basalt, which offers guided fishing trips, said flows higher than even 150 cfs can make it harder for older clients to safely wade and cross the river, limiting their access. Higher flows also can force fish to gather in certain areas rather than spreading out, he said.
Still, while he said more water can “put a damper” on hatches, he said he also sees benefits to higher flows, including an overall benefit to the fishery. And he said guide operations also can benefit downstream on the Roaring Fork River in late summer if more water comes in from the Fryingpan, cooling down the Roaring Fork and improving fishing, while also boosting float-fishing conditions.
Jay Skinner, instream flow specialist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the CWCB that hatches are temperature-dependent, and he questions how much higher flows would influence them on the Fryingpan.
“I have a hard time imagining that adding this amount of water from a deep reservoir to an already very cold river has a lot of impact on the hatches,” he said.