North Platte amended September 26 Minutes

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North Platte Basin Roundtable Meeting 9-26-06 For the trans-basin export on the Michigan River, Division 1 keeps the records. They use chart recorders and satellite monitoring as well as frequent visits by hydrologists to monitor utilization. Sue notes that we have not ever bumped up against our 60,000 acre-feet water export limit for our basin. (According to the CWCB North Platte River Basin Facts, data derived from the Division 1 and Division 61998 Annual Report indicate the 10-year average exports from the North Platte and tributaries totaled 22,648 acre-feet including diversions from the Laramie- Poudre Tunnel, the Michigan Ditch, the Wilson Supply Ditch and a small amount from a category noted "other".) As Eric Wagner emphasized in his paper and the group recognizes, key individuals like Walden attorney George Bailey, who was also the first chairman of the CWCB, have greatly influenced regulation of the North Platte River Basin in Colorado. While the decree on the NOlih Platte enjoins us, we do not have a delivery requirement such as that outlined in the Colorado River Compact of 1922. If not for North Park leaders like George Bailey, we might have ended up like Middle Park, with many trans-basin diversions and storage reservoirs built to supply the Front Range in drought years. IBBC Report Kent reports that he and Carl Trick attended the last IBCC meeting in Alamosa, and while they were there, attended the meeting of the Education and Outreach work group. That work group discussed the need to put together a website separate from the Department of Natural Resources IBCC site. This website would provide enhanced educational opportunities for all the roundtables to share information, educational resources, processes and procedures and other ideas as we move forward. After the IBBC meeting, Carl and Kent attended the Rio Grande Roundtable meeting and found it interesting to see how another roundtable addresses their issues. Water Supply Reserve Account Criteria and Guidelines Kent distributed the most recent draft to our members and indicated that he believes the document is close to being approved. It has been reviewed and approved by the CWCB tentative to the IBCC approving the document. He expects the criteria and guidelines to be approved at either the October or November meeting. The Water Supply Reserve Account Criteria and Guidelines will be reviewed annually and changes made accordingly as needed. Kent emphasized that once the reserve account and basin projects begin to be submitted, the North Platte Roundtable must be prepared to review and evaluate all projects that come before us. We will abide by evaluation criteria in the decision-making process and be prepared to adequately articulate and justify our decisions. Needs Assessment and Potential Prc?}ects Discussion The members continued discussion of the needs assessment and possible projects for the North Platte River Basin. . After discussion of the decree and hearing how irrigation water use and storage estimates are formulated, our group may want to take a look at comparing our data to 2