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. . .'. l' . ;- 13z. To: Colorado Water Conservation Board From: Hal Simpson, State Engineer Date: September 13,2006 Subject: Written Directors' Report for 9/19/06 Meeting I am submitting a brief written report for the above Board meeting in Vail. Due to a conference of State Engineers from 15 other states in Estes Park on the same dates as the Board meeting, I will not be able to attend and my Deputies will be at the same conference assisting with various details. General Issues: 1. Water supply conditions remain below average and we continue to have calls on most river basins. 2. The Republican River Basin CREP signup was June 12 and about 25,000 acres were signed up and more are expected as knowledge of the program becomes available due to booths at the various county fairs this summer. Our goal is to permanently retire 30,000 acres of irrigated lands in close proximity to streams in the basin. Currently about 25,000 acres have been offered for the program. 3. We initiated our discussions with Kansas water officials on the operation and accounting of releases from John Martin Reservoir on June 27 and 28 in Denver and for three days of meetings on August 28 to 30 in Topeka. We are meeting on October 18 and 19 in Denver to continue the discussions. We have reached tentative agreement on four issues. I am optimistic that we will be able to reach agreements on these long standing issues in the next year. 4. The Republican River Compact meeting was held on August 9 and lOin Phillipsburg, KS and we heard the results of the accounting for 2005 from the Engineering Committee. In the settlement signed in 2002, we agreed to operate under a five year average beginning in 2003. The accounting for 2003 to 2004 shows an under-delivery by Colorado of about 24,000 a- f due to the extreme dry conditions in the basin. Colorado's performance in 2005 was slightly better with depletions of 10,240 a-fin excess of the adjusted allocation. Both states have