RGBRT Minutes of 4-06

• Basin Roundtable: Rio Grande
• Title: Minutes
• Date: 4/11/2006
• Basin Roundtables - Doc Type: Minutes

be effective if the Roundtables interact effectively with their diverse constituents and the
parties want to be bound . It is g oing to be an interesting process to follow an d see if the
Roundtables work .
For local Roundtables, the most important as pects of process are to get diverse g roups
of stakeholders togeth er to understand basin issues.

Ray is h opeful for legislation and continued funding so we can proceed with education
and discussion of substantive issues. Question : if local basin roundtab les will be able to
be at table for future interbasin discussions. It is a “ t ime will tell” kind of question.

Ray attempted to effectively represent interests of SLV in the process and thinks that
the outcome, the Charter as it was agreed upon, is fairl y innocuous yet attempts to set
out principles for di s cussion, agreements and ratifications.

Steve Vanidver report:

Steve t hanked Eric Hecox as th e work horse of whole process, behind, in front of and
between the scenes.

Steve’s o pinion of process sw ung widely thr oughout the period . At this point , he has
thoughts and concerns: He said that it is c lear that IBCC is not going to be the people
who actually do the ne gotiations and work, but the Roundtables will come up with ideas
and negotia t ions and IB CC will view from statewide perspe ctive, review, discuss and
ulti m at ely ratify , if determined to be good for the state.

Later in IB Compact, it became plain that any Roundtable that will be impacted by any
negotiation can stop any discussion. The Rio Gra nde and Gunni son were main focus –
for example, the Rio Grande Basin will have veto power over any plans that other
b asins may have for our water. He was m ost pleased that this was included.

Steve concurred with Ray that it was an amazingly diverse group — b etween basins and
individuals.

Steve remains c oncerned that ther e is nothing that makes the Roundtables or IBCC
“THE” place to go. There is n othing that f unnels projects through the Roundtables. He
sees t h at as the challenge, to get the Roundtables to be used by planners rather than
simply filing in court and starting a fight. If they do not go to the Roundtables, t he whole
process is for naught. Steve said that it is up to all of us to try to direct plans through
this process. If developers and pla nners will use this process, it will be important.

Eric Hecox report:
Eric thanked Steve, Ray and Mike Gibson for their work in this effort . He agreed that is
a very diverse group and very challenging to get agreement. He a ppreciates all the
in put and r epresentatives from RGBRT to areas of unanswered questions and their help
in moving the process along. Eric t hinks that the big challenge ahead is that the
process has no teeth and does not supersede current law etc. Therefore, the question
Page 3 of 5 RGBRT Minutes

April 11 , 2006