BOARD00056 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/13/2006
• Description: CF Section, ISF Section, OWCDP Section, Flood Section - Proposed Statute Revisions
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Expands the Water Efficiency Grant Program Fund currently administered by
the Office of Water Conservation and Drought Planning (OWCDP). Specific
legislation involves addressing the funding and use of the CWCB Office of Water
Conservation & Drought Planning grant programs used to support local
municipal and special district water conservation and drought mitigation
planning & implementation.

~37-60-126 C.R.S., ~37-60-126.5 C.R.S., and ~39-29-109 C.R.S. are
amended to read as attached:

Backeround

Currently the OWCDP administers two distinct grant programs with two distinct funding sources.
The first is a grant program (HB04-1365) to fund the development of water conservation plans and
drought mitigation plans (937-60-126 & 937-60-126.5 c.R.S.). To fund this grant program, the
CWCB is authorized to recommend the appropriation and expenditure of necessary revenues from
the unobligated balance of the 5% share of the operational account of the severance tax trust fund.
Covered entities are eligible for water conservation and drought mitigation planning grants while
state and local governmental entities are eligible for drought mitigation planning monies.

The second grant program (HB05-1254), the Water Efficiency Grant Program, is funded out of an
appropriation in the amount of $500,000 annually for three years starting July 2005 from the
operational account of the severance tax trust fund. The Water Efficiency Grant Program was
created for the purposes of providing state funding to aid in achieving the water efficiency goals
outlined in locally adopted water conservation plans and to promote the benefits of water efficiency.
Covered entities and agencies are eligible for these funds. When the grant program was created in
2005, the General Assembly also appropriated to the CWCB an amount necessary to cover the costs
associated with the administration of the grant program, not to exceed an aggregate amount of eighty
thousand dollars ($80,000) for the three fiscal years of the grant program.

Proposed Chanees

The proposed changes to the aforementioned Colorado Revised Statutes can be organized into four
main categories:

I) Broaden the use of the currently existing Water Efficiency Grant Program Fund to include
water conservation planning and implementation, education and public outreach, and drought
mitigation planning and implementation.

2) Increase the Water Efficiency Grant Program Fund by $1.850 million.

3) Extend the Water Efficiency Grant Program Fund sunset date back by three years from its
current 2008 to 2012.

Flood Protection. Water Project Planning and Financing. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation Planning