Colorado’s Water Plan & Yampa-White-Green River

1. Colorado’s Water Plan & Yampa-White-Green River Basin Implementation PlanThe Future of Northwest Colorado Water Trappers Lake Basin Upper White River Photo: Jay Gallagher

2. Annual River Flows (acre-feet per year) 400,000 310,000 110,000 N. PLATTE LARAMIE 1,530,000 YAMPA SOUTH PLATTE WHITE 560,000 4,500,000 COLORADO Transmountain Diversions 500,000 AFY GUNNISON 510,000 ARKANSAS 164,000 DOLORES RIO GRANDE SAN JUAN EAST SLOPE Population: 4,490,000 Irrigated Acres: 2,548,000 WEST SLOPE Population: 562,000 Irrigated Acres: 918,000 320,000 1,780,000 2

3. Colorado River System Provides municipal water to 40M people Irrigates 5M acres 7 states, 22 tribes & Mexico Generates 4200 mW Sustains 7 Nat’l Wildlife Refuges 4 Nat’l Rec Areas 11 Nat’l Parks 1922 CR Compact: Upper Basin must deliver 7,500,000 AFY to Lower Basin (10-year running avg.)

4. Why Do We Need a Water Plan? • Growing gap between supply & demand: - flat-lining water supplies - increasing population growth • High rate of agricultural dry-up • Increasing stress on environment • Recreational opportunities • Growing challenges to develop and maintain water infrastructure systems - funding sources - inefficient regulatory processes

5. Meeting the Shortfall • Agricultural Transfers • “ag dry-up” • Projects and Processes • Pursue in-basin water supply projects • Foster new relationships - lease / fallow arrangements between farmers & municipalities • Conservation & Reuse • Reduce municipal per capita use • Develop more efficient irrigation methods • New Supply • New trans-mountain diversion of unallocated water

6. Factors to be considered in the water planning process • Hydrologic & Climate Change • Highly variable annual flows - all rivers in US Southwest • Legal & Constitutional • Water rights - private property governed by doctrine of prior appropriation • 15 Interstate Agreements (“Compacts”) with 9 states and international treaty with Mexico • Regulatory • Endangered Species Act • Protect Flows for Endangered Fish Recovery Programs • Economic/Political • Consideration of impact on existing uses and future growth • Feasibility of a new Trans-Mountain Diversion… • All the factors above plus… • Cost of financing a $6B-$8B project • Political will to support and sustain a project over many decades

7. What’s in the Plan? 1. Introduction 2. Legal and Institutional Setting 3. Overview of Each Basin 4. Historical and Projected Supply 5. Water Demand by Sector 6. Adaptive Water Strategy & Methods 7. Watershed Health and Water Quality 8. Interbasin Projects & Agreements 9. Upholding Colorado Law & Compacts & Aligning State Resources 10. Legislative Recommendations 11. Updating Colorado’s Water Plan

8. How will the Water Plan be used? • Not a prescriptive plan endorsing individual projects. • A statement of values and policies to support decision-making at the local and state level. - Guide development of projects and programs - Inform legislation to facilitate plan implementation • State’s role: facilitator for implementation.

9. Yampa-White-Green River Basin Implementation Plan The Future of Water in Northwest Colorado Mather’s Hole, Yampa Canyon: Jay Gallagher

10. 2005 Water for the 21st Century Act - nine Basin Roundtables - Interbasin Compact Committee (IBCC) • 28 members representing all stakeholders • Grassroots effort to direct and negotiate basin/ state policy and needs • Projects and Methods to Meet Future Needs 10

11. Characteristics of the Yampa/White/Green Basin • Less developed relative to other basins in the State • Relatively junior water rights • Numerous large conditional water rights • Limited storage • The value of the wild Yampa River • Flow requirements for endangered species protection

12. +58%

13. Basin Concerns • Preserving the promise of a prosperous future for both consumptive and non-consumptive uses. • Role of YWG basin in Colorado River System • significant contributor to meeting the Upper Colorado Basin deliveries to Lake Powell. • Managing risk • significant exposure as most junior portfolio of water rights • rigorous operational analysis of a proposed TMD • equitably allocate the risk and impact of Compact administration among Colorado River tributary basins.

14. YWG Basin Plan Overall objective is to provide increased certainty of water supply for: • Agriculture • Municipal &Industrial • Riparian health • Species Protection • Energy Extraction • Recreation • Thermoelectric Power

15. Goals of the YWG Basin Plan • Protect existing decreed and anticipated future water uses in the YWG Basin. 2. Protect and encourage agricultural uses of water within the context of private property rights. 3. Improve agricultural water supplies to increase irrigated land and reduce shortages. 4. Identify and address municipal and industrial water shortages.

16. Goals of the YWG Basin Plan 5. Quantify and protect non-consumptive water uses. 6. Maintain the existing natural range of water quality necessary for current and anticipated water uses. 7. Restore, maintain, and modernize water storage and distribution infrastructure. 8. Develop an integrated system of water use, storage, administration, and delivery to reduce water shortages and to meet non-consumptive needs.

17. How do we do this? • Developed a hydrologic model to understand basin dynamics: • For identifying sub-basin shortages under future scenarios (High demand-Dry hydrology) • For evaluating proposed projects

18. Next Steps • Identify inconsistencies in our hydraulic model for the basin to improve its value as a decision-support tool for both consumptive and non-consumptive uses. • Develop more detail for the projects, processes, and measurable outcomes associated with each basin goal.

19. www.coloradowaterplan.com The Yampa/ White/ Green Basin Roundtable meets the second Wednesday of each odd month at 6pm at the American Legion Hall. The public is encouraged to attend. White River below Rangely Photo: courtesy of Mike Melneck

20. Upper Yampa River Watershed Group • Water Quality Monitoring (USGS) • River Watch • Watershed Planning, including proposed projects • State of the Watershed Report (2014)