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New agreement sends Ruedi Reservoir water to endangered fish

Creative Commons/Flickr/Carolyn Cuskey

A new water agreement will send additional water from Ruedi Reservoir near Basalt, to endangered fish in the Colorado River. 

An Endangered Fish Recovery Program already sends water from Ruedi Reservoir to a 15-mile reach of the Colorado River, upstream of Grand Junction. This new agreement will send even more. A special state trust fund was used to purchase stored water in the reservoir from the Ute Water Conservancy District. The agreement will send between 6000 and 12,000 acre feet in the month of September, when that stretch could use a boost.

Linda Bassi is with the Colorado Water Conservation Board that initiated the release.

"This is the kind of cooperative project that we are talking about as we develop Colorado’s water plan, to have partners on projects for meeting both consumptive needs and non-consumptive needs. This is going to benefit the environment."

The water will also be used for hydropower generation before it reaches the fish’s critical habitat.