Board Metting 01/23/2007

• Board Meeting Date: 1/23/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Pat Edelmann, of the U.S. Geological Survey, reported flows on the Arkansas River into John Martin
were 132,400 acre-feet, about 68 percent of average, and 53,340 at Coolidge, Kan., or 34 percent of
average. Low flows on the Purgatoire River and tributaries below John Martin are only at 29-51 percent .
of average.

Fountain Creek Settlement Talks at Impasse: Efforts to agree on a plan to stop Colorado Springs'
polluting of Fountain Creek seem at an impasse, attorneys said in U.S. District Court on Dec. 15.

The attorneys, representing the Pueblo County district attorney and the Sierra Club, told a magistrate
judge that their lawsuits against the city probably can't be settled without a court order. A court order
would specify what Colorado Springs must do to stop spills of sewage, excessive chlorine and nonpotable
water into the creek, and what penalties the city must pay.

The attorneys said they are far apart with Colorado Springs in trying to reach agreement of what would be
in a court order. The attorneys, however, also said they are willing to consider using a private mediator to
try to agree with Colorado Springs on terms of a proposed court order. A proposed court order could be
presented to a judge for approval.

Attorney John Barth, representing District Attorney Bill Thiebaut, and attorney Eric Huber, representing
Sierra, gave their bleak assessment to Magistrate Judge Boyd Boland. He called the court proceeding to
see ifhis efforts to help the litigants try to reach a settlement would be productive.
If Thiebaut and the environmental group can't agree with Colorado Springs on what remedies and
penalties would be in a court order, a trial may be necessary.

Colorado Springs is putting priority on its efforts to have the presiding judge, Walker Miller, throw out
the lawsuits, rather than putting priority on reaching agreement to settle them. Without agreement on
terms of a court order, a trial would be necessary for Miller to determine what a court order would .
require, unless the judge throws out the lawsuits before a trial.

Attorneys for the three litigants demonstrated at Friday's status conference little indication of
compromising. Boland ordered officials of Colorado Springs, the environmental group and the district
attorneys office to attend a confidential settlement conference with Boland on March 5. All of the
officials must have authority to reach a settlement. The closed-door settlement negotiations are to start
soon after a pretrial conference between the litigants and Boland that already was set for the same day.

It is possible that presiding judge Miller could rule before then on whether to throw out the lawsuits, or to
rule, as Thiebaut and Sierra want, that the city has violated the Clean Water Act because of the spills.

A settlement conference in September produced no significant progress on substantive issues.

Conduit Legislation Gets New Life: A bill to authorize funding for the $330 million Arkansas Valley
Conduit was reintroduced Jan 4 on the first day of the 1 10th Congress by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-
Colo.

Allard, along with U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., carried the bill in the last session. The new legislation
is unchanged from the previous version, Allard said. Allard's bill would set the federal cost-share at 80
percent, leaving the balance to be paid by the 42 communities east of Pueblo expected to participate in the
conduit. The bill would authorize, but not appropriate, federal funds.

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., introduced a companion bill in the House on Thursday.

Hecla Junction Flood Mitigation: Heavy rains during August 11-12, 2006 in Chaffee County caused .
several ephemeral tributaries in the Arkansas River valley to experience unusual flash flooding. Hecla
Junction is within the Brown's Canyon reach of the Arkansas River Headwaters Recreation Area, and is

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