SW 4 11 07 minutes

• Basin Roundtable: Southwest
• Title: Minutes
• Date: 4/11/2007
• Basin Roundtables - Doc Type: Minutes

HB 1177 Southwest Basins Water Roundtable
April 11, 2007 Draft Minutes
Cortez, CO

Chairman Steve Harris called the meeting to order at 3:00 P.M. and introductions were
made. Steve read the names of those absent.

Minutes of February meeting:
Gary Kennedy moved and Chuck Lawler seconded that the minutes be approved as
written.. The motion carried.

OFFICERS REPORTS:
Steve said that our Roundtable By-Laws need to be retitled, changing "Dolores, San Juan,
San Miguel" to "Southwest Basins". Steve said he would do this.

IBCC -- John Porter.
John reported that Harris Sherman seemed to be very committed to the roundtable process,
and is supportive of continuing them. At the Colorado Water Congress meeting, the State
Affairs Committee was very vocal and negative about the roundtables. They said we are
short on budget and suggested cutting SB 179 monies. The opinion was that the projects
are not statewide and are "wasteful." Mr. Harris said he would reduce the Roundtable
budget only by $4 million and made a strong case for continuing the work of the
roundtables. He added some ideas on how to give it some meaning by using these groups
for information sharing and looking at state policies. Steve Vandiver, Rio Grand WCD,
told Harris he was glad to see some direction, and now they can get something done. At
the meeting before last, John said that Eric Kuhn talked about 3 things about global
warming. We need to think into the future when doing water planning. It's time that
Colorado thinks about how to administer a lower-basin call. Southwestern Colorado sits in
a pretty good spot because our rights are senior to most others. Steve added that safety
supply margin might be considered by this Roundtable. It might be something that we try
to tackle over the next year or so.

Don Schwindt said he thought the CWCB has included approximately $0.5 million to do
the compact water availability studies. This should be a major topic discussed at the joint
roundtables in June. The impetus of the study is "how much water is available, where, and
to whom." This is something for all of us to be thinking about. The Roundtables should be
helping direct where this study should go. John P. validated that the money is available
July 1,2007. Steve added that emphasis for the joint meeting is what John and Don spoke
about above and what's the present amount of depletion in western Colorado and Colorado
River Compact. The CWCB has one view of where we're at on that how much is left, and
the River Districts have a different view. He was sure we'd have input from both groups as
well as discussion. Jim Cisco added that one of the most interesting statements he heard at
a recent meeting on the Colorado River Compact that puts the issue in perspective was, "I
don't care what your right is....what is your need?" He suggested that when we're looking
where to use the earlier mentioned money, that we look at what our needs are. Steve said
that this issue will come up later in agenda.