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.~ . . . .. the local participants. On the House side, Congresswoman Musgrave and Congressman Salazar introduced similar legislation to the Senate bill. Committee meetings in the Senate and House are expected sometime in May. In addition, on April 19, 2007 the House re-authorized the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA, H.R. 1495), which includes $69,000,000 for the Conduit through the Army Corps of Engineers. The bill is expected to be heard in the Senate in May. A new grant request for a $675,000 State and Tribal Assistance Grant (STAG) through the EP A is being prepared for submittal for Federal Fiscal Year 2008. This funding requires a 45% local match, and at the March meeting, CWCB approved a SB-179 grant for $200,000 to be used for partial matching funds. The grant funds will be used to continue planning and complete the preliminary engineering studies and design. Arkansas River Basin Water Forum: Staff attended the 2007 Arkansas River Basin Water Forum in Rocky Ford on April 12-13. Both Hal Simpson and David Pope from Kansas were featured speakers at this year's event and fielded a large number of inquiries from the audience. Additional information may be found at the Forum website: http://www.arbwf.org/default.htm Kansas v Colorado Litigation Account Update: An agreement has been reached with CSU to begin fabrication of the second, smaller reference lysimeter at a cost of approximately $57,000. A final design and installation plan with detailed cost estimate is still being developed and will utilize as much of the additional $90,000 in funding which the Board authorized at the March meeting as necessary to get the lysimeter installed at Rocky Ford. Irrigation of an initial oat cover crop on the main lysimeter has begun, and an alfalfa crop is planned for later this year. Initial data collection of winter snow fall and early irrigation has been very promising, and demonstrated the sensitivity and accuracy of the main lysimeter. We will be issuing 6 month, no-cost time extensions for the other contracts [weather stations, expert witness, and irrigation studies] on this project which will now expire on December 31, 2007. The time extensions will allow more effective use of remaining contract balances as the details of the final decree in the case are resolved. Arkansas River Compact Administration (ARCA): Hal Simpson and Rod Kuharich again met with David Pope and his staff in Pueblo for the sixth round of the ARCA Special Engineering Committee on April 11. An agreement was reached on several minor issues, and further developed potential solutions to the issues of spill allocation and retroactive accounting. In addition, staff continues to work on the ongoing Ten Year Review of the Trinidad Project, with a modeling group now in place, and the LA WMA proposal to add a new water supply to the John Martin Reservoir permanent pool with an Engineering Committee meeting likely in June. 11