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month, at the District office, 31717 United Avenue, Pueblo, Colorado. For more information go to www.secwcd.org LA VWCD Meetings: Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District Meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month, held 801 Swink Avenue, Rocky Ford, Colorado. For more information call 719-254-5115 or go to www.lavwcd.org . . Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy Meetings: The District holds its meetings on the second Thursday of each month, I :00 p.m. at the Upper District office: 339 East Highway 50, Salida, Colorado. For more information go to www.uawc.org. Colorado River Basin Seven Basin State Discussions: The August 3151 meeting of the seven basin states was cancelled because limited progress had been made in talks among the Lower Basin states. Items under discussion by the Lower Basin include (1) updates on Reclamation's discussions with each of the Lower Basin states on necessary forbearance agreements, (2) draft letter to Secretary Kempthorne concerning the 2006 Hydrologic Determination (Senator Kyl has requested that Secretary Kempthorne withhold final approval of the Hydrologic Determination), and (3) augmentation studies (Southern Nevada Water Authority Study, Weather Modification and a demonstration tamarisk control project). Green Mountain Historic Users Pool (HUP) Surplus Declared: The HUP managing entities made a surplus declaration on August 16, allowing water in the HUP in excess of expected demands to be released to assist in meeting the 15-Mile Reach target flow. Surplus HUP water is available to the USFWS to help support flow recommendations for endangered fish in the 15-mile reach of critical habitat near Grand Junction. Flows in most of the Colorado basin have been higher than in recent years but are . declining, as is characteristic in August. As a result of the declining flows, the USFWS is using the water available in all of its designated pools in various reservoirs to meet the 15-Mile Reach target flow for this year of 1240 cfs. The managing entities agreed that it wasn't too early to make the declaration and that even with releases of 200 cfs starting in mid-August they could still withstand a dry period and the resulting higher releases and likely keep a cushion of 20-30 KAF in the HUP pool. Green Mountain Maintenance: The ring seal gate refurbishment project that was delayed during the drought years is finally being completed. Green Mountain will be able to operate both turbines by mid- September for the first time in several years. Colorado River Water Use: As of August 1,2006, storage in the four major Upper Basin reservoirs decreased by 405,500 acre-feet and storage in the Lower Basin reservoirs decreased by 152,000 acre-feet during July. Total system active storage as of August 16 was 34.251 million acre-feet (MAF), or 58 percent of capacity, which is 1.456 MAF less than one year ago. (Upper Basin reservoirs decreased by 111,000 acre-feet and Lower Basin reservoirs decreased by 1.345 MAP.) The end-of-year measure for 2004 California agricultural consumptive use of Colorado River water under the first three priorities and the sixth priority of the 1931 California Seven Party Agreement was reported as 3.524 MAF; and for 2005, the end-of-year measure was 3.581 MAF. The target under the Interim Surplus Guidelines (ISG) for the end of 2003 was 3.740 MAF, and the target for 2006 is 3.640 MAF, thus California has been in substantial compliance with the ISG through 2005. Tracking of use in 2006 is shown below through August I, with forecasted uses at the end of 2006 of approximately 3.720 MAF. Although the forecasted uses for 2006 are currently higher than the 2006 target of3.640 MAF, the Colorado River Board of California is aware of the issue and adjustments will be made. . 16