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

Executive Summary

The dialogue on water in Colorado has changed. In 2005,
the Colorado Water lor the 21 st Century Act (the Act)
created a collaborative process as a new approach 10
addressing our water needs. Since that historic beginning
nine Basin Roundtables have formed and began the
process of buflding a basin vision. The statewlde
tnternasin Compact Committee (IBGG) has brought 27
people together from diHerenl perspectives and different
parts of the stale to begin developing a frameworl<.lor
lnlerbasin water negotiations.

Thls report documents Ihe activnies of the leCe and
Basin Roundtables since the inception of the lnterbasin
Compact process, and fulfills the requirement of C.R.S
37,75-105(4) to report 10 Ihe House of Representatives
Committee on Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural
Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Natural Resources, and Energy on the status of compact
negotiations by October 31st of each year.

The Act established nine separate Basin Roundtables,
shown in Figure ES-1; one for each of the state's eight
major river basins, and a "Metro Roundtable' for the
Denver metropolitan area. Basin Roundtables are
permanent structures set up to facilitate discussions on
water managemenllssues and to encourage locally
driven collaborative solutions.

The Basin Roundtables were immediately tasked with
developing by-laws and goals and objectives. Refiecting
the grass roots nature of the lnterbasin Compact process,
each Basin Roundtable established its own by-laws,
elected its own leaders, and set jts own meeting
schedule. Many Basin Roundtables used the by-law
formation process to outline goals and objectives for their
roundtable and 10 begin discussions of a vision for their
basin.

One of the most important procedural responsibilities of
each Basin Rouootable is to select two members of the
IBCC. By December of 2005 all nine roundtables had
appointed their two IBCC representatives, allowing the
IBCC to have its first meeting in early 2006.

With over 100 Basin Roundtable meetings, participation
has remained high. The Arkansas Basin Roundtable
covers the largest geographic region and has
consistenUy had over 35 of its 53 members in
attendance. The Gunnison Basin Roundtable has
continually had between 25 and 30 of its 33 members in
allendance. Overall participation by roundtable members
has consistently been around 70 percent participation
with a high of 91 percent participation in April 2006.

The Basin Roundtables were also tasked with educating
themselves on water-related Issues statewide and within
their basin. Basin Roundtables have had presentations
on different topic areas (the prior
appropriation doctrine, interstate compacts,
waler administration, groundwater
resources, etc.) and on different geographic
locations (issues in the Upper Gunnison,
issues in the While River Basin, etc.).
Section 2 details the educational activities
of each Basin Roundtable.

Figure ES-1
The Nine Basin Roundtables

'-.c-.-...-.~_.__..........___

The Act assigned a major task 10 the Basin
Roundtables: the development of a basin-
wide water needs assessment (C.R.S 37-
75-104(2)(c), In developing their needs
assessments, the Genera! Assembly asked
the Basin Roundtables to use SWSI and
other appropriate sources, and 10 work in
cooperation with local governments. area
waler providers, and other stakeholders. To
begin the needs assessment process,
Colorado Water Conservation Board and
those Involved in SWSI provided briefings

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