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Executive Summary The dialogue on water in Colorado has changed. In 2005, the Colorado Water for the 21 st Century Act (the Act) created a collaborative process as a new approach to addressing our water needs. Since that historic beginning nine Basin Roundtables have formed and began the process of building a basin vision. The statewide Interbasin Compact Committee (IBCC) has brought 27 people together from different perspectives and different parts of the state to begin developing a framework for interbasin water negotiations. This report documents the activities of the IBCC and Basin Roundtables since the inception of the Interbasin Compact process, and fulfills the requirement of C.R.S 37 -75-105(4) to report to the 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 31 st 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 management issues and to encourage locally driven collaborative solutions. "'-..,.rC .l" '"", North ,/' ~ / ~" ; Platte ......................v........:::;::' ,-.-.. ............... _ .:.... .. .7 YampalWhite--.... ~ ~ --~'-~~ --/ ;:/ ~ I , /~-'.J ~ ~ /~.~~. ( '" ~ \ - J ~ ., VColorado",- I //~ ~ ~,,_-...(r--. bE!ml~ The Basin Roundtables were immediately tasked with developing by-laws and goals and objectives. Reflecting the grassroots nature of the Interbasin Compact process, each Basin Roundtable established its own by-laws, elected its own leaders, and set its own meeting schedule. Many Basin Roundtables used the by-law formation process to outline goals and objectives for their roundtable and to begin discussions of a vision for their basin. One of the most important procedural responsibilities of each Basin Roundtable 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 consistently 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 attendance. 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, water administration, groundwater resources, etc.) and on different geographic locations (issues in the Upper Gunnison, issues in the White River Basin, etc.). Section 2 details the educational activities of each Basin Roundtable. Figure ES-1 The Nine Basin Roundtables S:\IBC Support\Report to Legislature\Executive Summary-finaLdoc The Act assigned a major task to 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 General Assembly asked the Basin Roundtables to use SWSI and other appropriate sources, and to work in cooperation with local governments, area water providers, and other stakeholders. To begin the needs assessment process, Colorado Water Conservation Board and those involved in SWSI provided briefings CDIVI ES-1 ~ office 01 Interbasin Compact Negotiations ~ .~ ~ ~ IJEPAItT....1E1..n OF ,NATUg.AL RESOURCES II" :;:......".:."1'- 1',1].> /8.F*;:~ .~ ';';:. g -. ~ ~) ..~ ',' Q~ ~ · . J ;:;-:J .;Y