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<br />. <br /> <br />Increased concern and awareness of faulty municipal water systems <br />resulted in over 60 Colorado communities receiving $44 million in <br />federal drought aid. <br /> <br />2.0 DROUGHT POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT <br /> <br />2.1 Western Regional Response <br /> <br />. The Western Regional Drought Action Task Force (WRDATF), a coali- <br />tion of 21 Western and Midwestern governors chaired by Governor <br />Lamm, prompted Congress and the Carter administration to undertake <br />the timely passage of an $844 million drought assistance package in <br />the spring of 1977. <br /> <br />. WRDATF served as an information coordination and dissemination <br />point designed to facilitate the management of individual states' <br />drought projects. <br /> <br />. WRDATF featured a built-in "sunset" provision, causing it to phase <br />out of operation by March 1978. <br /> <br />2.2 Colorado Drought Policy Development and Management <br /> <br />. Early drought policy was characterized by Governor Lamm's decision <br />to appoint a Drought Council composed mainly of state agency <br />administrators and scientists. The Drought Council served in a <br />strictly advisory capacity to the Governor. Key policy decisions <br />included call1ng for the use of weather modification to augment <br />winter snowpack (which led to the passage of a $251,000 weather <br />modification bill by the Colorado Legislature on February 1, 1977) <br />and developing a localized drought management plan which would <br />utilize drought coordinators in each of the State's 13 planning and <br />management districts. The management plan included the appointment <br />and placement of a State Drought Coordinator in the Governor's <br />Office. <br /> <br />. The Governor sent a request for $533,491 to the State Legislature <br />for the implementation of the State drought management plan. <br />Legislative resistance to the plan (focused primarily on the <br />organizational concept of utilizing drought coordinators in each <br />of the 13 planning and management districts) resulted in a two-month <br />delay in action. <br /> <br />. The two bills which finally emerged from the Legislature were signed <br />into law by the Governor on June 10, 1977. HB 1722 appropriated <br />$300,000 for weather modification operations to be initiated the <br />following winter and $50,000 for program evaluation. <br /> <br />2 <br />