BOARD00031 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 9/20/2006
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

.

.

.

7 Basin States Cloud Seeding Five-Year Plan: As part of the 7 Basin States Negotiations, $130K will
be spent in the Colorado River Basin in Colorado and a total of $272K will be spent in WY, UT, and CO
by Lower Basin States interests for water augmentation through cloud seeding in the Upper Basin States.
Staff members Joe Busto and Ted Kowalski are on a weather modification Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee
that will develop a list of priorities for consideration by the 7 Basin States principals. We will be
developing Colorado's portion of the five-year plan over the winter through the spring 2007. Staff
requests that CWCB Members tributary to and in the Colorado River Basin help identify mountain ranges
for consideration and water management agencies that would likely want to partner with the 7 Basin
States and the CWCB in cloud seeding. We are looking for new programs and to expand existing
programs. A recent analysis by the USBR identified the Flat Tops Wilderness, Park Range, Elkhead
Mountains, White River Plateau, and the Uncompahgre Plateau as mountain ranges meeting the criteria
for cloud seeding potential (significant terrain above 9,000 ft). This analysis was used for a Cloud
Seeding White Paper for the Upper Colorado River Commission and can be found on the CWCB website
at http://www.cwcb.state.co.uslFloodlPubs.htm entitled "Potential Water Augmentation from Cloud
Seeding in the Colorado River Basin". We are looking for CWCB Members to help us identify target
areas and potential program partners in the Colorado River Basin. Please contact Director Kuharich or
staff members Joe Busto or Ted Kowalski with ideas for exploration.

Price Stubbs Whitewater Park Costs Rise: The Price-Stubbs whitewater park, adjacent to the fish
ladder being designed and built by the Bureau of Reclamation, is estimated to cost more than $2.4 million
than the original estimate. A copy of a Denver Post article is attached to this report.

Court Halts Construction on Canal Near U.S.-Mexico Border: On August 25, a federal appeals court
ordered an immediate halt to construction on a leaky section of an irrigation canal that delivers Colorado
River water to farms in California's Imperial Valley. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered work
on the All-American Canal, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, to stop while an appeal is heard in a
lawsuit filed to block the project.

On August 24,2006, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals two judge panel granted the plaintiff's
motion to enjoin the canal lining project regarding the All-American Canal Lining Project while the
appeal of the District Court order, in favor of the defendants' dismissal, proceeds. The Ninth Circuit
order states that the case will be heard during the week of December 4,2006.

The lawsuit was brought against the federal government in 2005 by environmentalists and agriculture
interests in Mexico, who argued that farms and wildlife south of the border have come to depend on
leakage from the canal. A 23-mile section of the canal has leaked river water into a groundwater aquifer
shared with Mexico for decades, and plaintiffs in the case claimed that farmers and wildlife south of the
border now depended on the seepage.

In July, a federal judge in Las Vegas ruled that the canal project should be allowed to go forward, but the
decision was appealed by the economic development council of Mexicali, Mexico, and the conservation
groups Desert Citizens Against Pollution and Citizens United for Resources and the Environment.
Construction was scheduled to start in a matter of days. If built, the $210 million project is expected to
prevent billions of gallons of Colorado River water from seeping from the 78-year-old canal each year.

Colorado River Technical Workgroup Meeting: The State's Technical Committee met on August 22nd
to discuss (1) parameters for making a deal with Mexico, (2) review and compare the results of
alternatives run using CRSSlite and similar alternatives run on the CRSS model, and (3) a discussion on
how the proposed alternative address issues between the Basin States. In general, the CRSS model
improved the performance of the alternatives under consideration however, there were several
modifications to the CRSS model that were influencing the evaluations as well. We understand the
reasoning for most of the changes but are concerned that some of the modifications made will have

19