BOARD00055 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/13/2006
• Description: IBCC Director's Report - Interbasin Compact Committee Annual Report to the House of Representatives Com. On Agriculture, Livestock, Natural Resources, and Senate Com. On Agriculture, Energy, Natural
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

2.6 North Platte Basin

2.6.1 Procedural Accomplishments

The first meeting of the North Platte Basin Roundtable
was held on October 20, 2005, and members set an
immediate goal to fill the vacant at-large positions to
ensure all interests in the basin were represented.
Within a month, the North Platte Basin Basin Roundtable
met again and selected at-large members, elected a
chairman, elected representatives to the IBCC and
established a subcommittee to begin developing bylaws.
Mr. Kent Crowder was elected Chair of the North Platte
Basin Roundtable and as a representative to the IBCC.
Mr. Carl Trick was elected as the second representative
to the IBCC, as required by Section 37-75-104(b)(lI) of
the Act. Eighty percent of the North Platte Basin
Roundtable members own adjudicated water rights in the
North Platte Basin. The North Platte Basin Roundtable
has 10 voting at-large members and two non-voting at
large members.

As required by Section 37-75-104(a)(I) of the Act, the
North Platte Basin Roundtable adopted bylaws and 13
distinct goals and objective on April 4, 2006. The
purpose/mission of the North Platte Basin Roundtable as
stated in the bylaws is to support and advocate
cooperative efforts to coordinate and facilitate the
appropriate use of the waters of the North Platte and to
develop long-term solutions to intra-basin water needs,
and collaborate with other Roundtables to find solutions
to inter-basin water issues. The North Platte Basin
Roundtable first uses a decision making process that
seeks to identify and positively affirm a broad general
level of support for or approval of an issue or proposal in
question by all North Platte Basin Roundtable members.
If the North Platte Basin Roundtable cannot reach a
mutually acceptable agreement on an issue, proposal or
other agreement that is brought before the North Platte
Basin Roundtable, members will make the decision by
majority vote of the voting members present at the
meeting of the North Platte Basin Roundtable. The North
Platte Basin Roundtable has met nine times since its
initial meeting.

S:\IBC Support\Report to Leglslature\Sectlon 2 flnal.doc

Section 2
Reports From Basin Roundtables
'..:i!14II-'--

2.6.2 North Platte Basin Educational

Accomplishments

The formation of the North Platte Basin Roundtable and
participation as roundtable members has enhanced
awareness of water issues as members begin to grasp a
better understanding of how the North Platte Basin
issues are linked with those of other basins and
neighboring states. All members recognize there is a
great deal more to learn regarding water issues. In an
effort to increase knowledge, roundtable members have
agreed to invite experts to provide brief presentations at
the beginning of all future meetings.

During the past year, educational highlights of the North
Platte Basin Roundtable include the following:

. Initially, members invested a great deal of time
reviewing and discussing the language and intent of
HB05-1177.

. Mr. Ken Lykens, a board member of the Colorado
Foundation for Water Education (CFWE) attended a
roundtable meeting and gave a brief presentation to
the roundtable describing the resources of CFWE.
Each member of the roundtable was given an
information-packed resource notebook.

. Several roundtable members have attended regional
and state meetings addressing Colorado Water
Issues (I.e. the CSU Water Dialogue of December
2005 and the Colorado's Future 2006 Conference of
October 2006).

. Ms. Erin Light and Ms. Sue Petersmann with the
DWR, Division 6 delivered a presentation on the
history and importance of the North Platte River
Decree. A written document on the decree composed
by a former Jackson County water commissioner, Mr.
Eric Wagner, was distributed to members.

. Mr. Ted Kowalski, of CWCB, presented a review of
the Cooperative Agreement for Platte River Research
and Other Efforts Relating to Endangered Species
Habitat Along the Central Platte River, Nebraska and
the subsequently developed Platte River Recovery
Implementation Program. Specifically, Mr. Kowalski
discussed how the agreement relates to the North
Platte River Depletion Plan.

2-11