{"id":114577,"date":"2015-02-13T01:22:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T08:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/proposal-for-lower-dolores-criticized\/"},"modified":"2015-02-13T01:22:59","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T08:22:59","slug":"proposal-for-lower-dolores-criticized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/proposal-for-lower-dolores-criticized\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal for Lower Dolores criticized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Lower Dolores River is the focus of a proposed National Conservation Area. The canyons are popular with rafters when there is a whitewater release from McPhee Reservoir.<\/span>Cortez Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Montezuma County commission and San Juan Basin Farm Bureau have publicly come out against a fledgling proposal to create a National Conservation Area on the Lower Dolores River.<\/p>\n

Citing concerns that the designation could result in additional water being released downstream from McPhee Reservoir, the commissioners voted 3-0 to oppose any such plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning, the goal of the NCA was to protect our irrigation water for farmers and ranchers, and as things progressed I feel it has gotten away from that and went to native fish,\u201d said commissioner Larry Don Suckla, who is on an NCA legislative committee.<\/p>\n

But others involved said it is too early to take sides because the bill is still in a draft form and has not been released to the public yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is some misunderstanding of the intent of the NCA,\u201d said Al Heaton, also a member of a legislative committee. \u201cOnce it\u2019s out, there will be significant time for the public to read the draft and weigh in on it. It\u2019s good to air it out, because there\u2019s room for discussion, clarification and negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lower Dolores Plan Working Group has been researching legislation for an NCA on the Lower Dolores River below McPhee dam since 2010. A draft is near completion and is expected to be available for review in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s commissioner meeting, Suckla said a draft he saw was \u201cdisturbing.\u201d He was critical of the balance of 15 organizations listed in a memorandum of agreement directing the NCA proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis list is so unfair as far as equal representation for citizens of the county,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a commission, our job is to protect property and water rights in Montezuma County, and I only see five entities here that side with that. Where\u2019s the mining interests, the farm bureau, the private landowner interests?\u201d<\/p>\n

A compromise<\/p>\n

The Lower Dolores Working group, representing various stakeholders, has been studying the environmental and commercial needs of the river below the dam for over a decade.<\/p>\n

One conclusion reached was that improving habitat for the native roundtail chub, bluehead sucker, and flannelmouth sucker on the Lower Dolores will help prevent them from being listed by the Endangered Species Act, federal intervention local officials want to avoid.<\/p>\n

An NCA in the valley from below McPhee dam to the confluence with the San Miguel River was proposed because the designation is seen as a flexible management tool with more local control in finding negotiated solutions to problems.<\/p>\n

As part of the deal, the section of Dolores River that runs through the proposed NCA would be stripped of its \u201csuitability\u201d status for a Wild and Scenic River, a highly protectionist federal designation. If Congress ever approved Wild and Scenic for the Dolores, it would likely come with a federally reserved water right, a situation opposed by local officials.<\/p>\n

Proponents say an NCA is a good fit because it balances conservation with commercial uses, eliminates Wild and Scenic potential for that section of river, and offers more local control than, say, a national monument.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group reached consensus to pursue an NCA as a way to protect values in a way that doesn\u2019t feel threatening to some stakeholders,\u201d Amber Kelley, Dolores River coordinator for the San Juan Citizens Alliance, said in an earlier interview. \u201cThe decision to develop an NCA as an alternative to Wild and Scenic suitability entails a compromise for everyone involved. A grass roots proposal is a far better option than having something imposed from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the commission meeting some were skeptical of the NCA plan, and urged that the area continue under BLM management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there is another way to protect fish without an NCA,\u201d Suckla said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unintended consequences\u2019<\/p>\n

In a letter, the local Farm Bureau outlined its opposition, saying an NCA threatened the region\u2019s water resources managed by the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company and the Dolores Water Conservancy District, which operates McPhee Reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal has conflicting requirements with respect to its description of water rights and could set the stage for serious litigation,\u201d according to the letter. \u201cExcept for new storage, the only . . . water supply . . . is from either MVIC or DWCD. This legislative path would set up a community fight between MVIC shareholders and DWCD full-service farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter goes on to say that the NCA proposal \u201cdoes not include a water right\u201d but because of uncertainties in federal and state water law, an NCA may have \u201cunintended consequences driven by political or judicial actions initiated by folks with interests different than our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must ask ourselves, \u2018are we supporting actions that may expand the ability of those interests to use the legal process to acquire water we did not intend to be available for acquisition?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A crux of the issue is how to improve downstream flows to benefit native fish. State and federal fish biologists have long recommended increasing McPhee\u2019s designated fish pool for release to the Lower Dolores to 36,500 acre-feet from it\u2019s current allocation of 31,800 acre-feet. But where the additional 4,701 acre-feet will come from has been a long-running debate.<\/p>\n

Farm Bureau spokesperson Linda Odell said the fear is that an NCA could force the Bureau of Reclamation to acquire the additional 4,701 acre-feet from existing users.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Marsha Porter-Norton, a facilitator with the Lower Dolores Plan Working Group, urged the public to be take time to review the proposed legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process has always been very open and responsive to concerns that have been brought forward,\u201d she stated. \u201cEveryone involved knows that any successful legislation requires community support. If there are adjustments to the proposal that can be made to ensure a comfort level on the part of water users, I believe the legislative subcommittee, which contains leaders from the water community, is open to discussing those ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commission, Farm Bureau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114577"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}