BOARD00146 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 3/12/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

.

.

e

:;

and are estimated at $1.472B in FY2007 and $1.598B in FY2008. Interest from miscellaneous
sources brings in S6M/year. The sale of public lands brought in $12M in FY2006, and other
proprietary receipts SI23M (projected at $113M and Sl26M over the next two years). For FY2008,
the Administration estimates receipts of $19M more each year for the next two years from the sale
of timber and other products from public lands. Further, its PA YGO (pay-as-you-go) proposal may
bring in $45M in FY2008. Anticipated receipts exceed estimated expenditures by more than $iB
annually, over each of the three years.

U.S. Geological Survey/StreamgaginglWRRIs -- The budget request for USGS totals S975M, up
about S30M. There is $62.38M for streamgaging under the Cooperative Water Program (CWP),
which USGS notes is a $4.2M decrease (6.7%) that only affects hydrologic studies and not data
collection. There is a seemingly corresponding $4.2M increase (30%) for the National Streamflow
Information Program (NSIP) of fully-federally funded streamgages, with about $1.2M directed
towards the USGS Hazards Assessment and Mitigation Initiative with SIOO,OOO to install three new
streamgages in southern California and $150,000 for USGS to deploy storm surge monitors along
coastlines subject to hurricanes for near-real-time visualization of flooding. Essentially all the
earmarks enacted for FY2006 are removed in the budget request, leading to the following decreases:
Tar Creek, Oklahoma $1.2M; Tongue River coalbed methane water quality impacts S900,000;
Upper San Pedro Partnership, Arizona $300,000; and Hood Canal, Washington dissolved oxygen
study SlOO,OOO.

Budget documents explain that in 2005, USGS operated some 7,450 streamgages, falling for
the first time since 1977 from the 7,627 gages operated in 2004. In addition to USGS' NSIP and
CWP funds, other federal agencies (primarily the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation) and some 800 state and local partners cover the cost of the streamgaging network.
Non-USGS sources pay over 69% of the cost, under changing agreements that often result in
significant year-to-year reductions or increases in the number of gages. Currently, there are nearly
200 gages at risk of being discontinued or that have been shut down since October 2005. Some of
these gages represent 70-98 years of record, and such long-term information is vital for regional
hydrologic surveys, infrastructure design, environmental assessments, flood hazard and water supply
planning, etc. Long periods of record are also essential for documenting and under-standing changes
in streamflow due to changes in land use, water use, ground water development and climate change.
For a list of threatened streamgages go to: http://water.usgs.gov/osw/lost streamgages.html.

Also of note, the Administration, as in past years, has again proposed cutting all grants ($6.4M)
for the Water Resources Research Institutes. The Congress has always restored funding for this
popular program.

Ditch Bill Workshop: On January 26,2007, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) conducted a workshop
entitled "Colorado Ditch Bill Easements: U.S. Forest Service Processing Progress and Policy
Discussion." The workshop was jointly sponsored by Congressman John Salazar, the Colorado Water
Congress, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and the Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance.

Speakers included Congressman Salazar, Rick Cables (USFS), Randy Karstaedt (USFS) and Jeff Ulrich
(USFS).

Topics discussed at the workshop included:
. a progress report on Ditch Bill and pre-forest reservation easement processing;
. width of Ditch Bill Easements;
. access to water facilities;
. sample Operation & Maintenance plans;
. USFS treatment of 1866 Act Easement requests vs. Ditch Bill Easement requests;
. time from regarding stay of processing Ditch Bill Easement applications vs. 1866 Act Easement
assertions;

11