5-24-07 Nonconsumptive Needs Assessment Work Group Meeting

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Strategy for Nonconsumptive Needs Assessment This document summarizes an overall approach for developing nonconsumptive needs assessments (NCNA). The strategy outlines steps for each 1177 Basin Roundtable to develop its nonconsumptive needs assessments. While the statute directs that the roundtables to do these assessments, the IBCC will try to coordinate a statewide approach to assist the roundtables and ensure consistent and comparable results. This proposed approach is summarized throughout the remainder of this document. The IBCC organized a statewide workshop on May 24, 2007 to kick off this process. Participants at the workshop were invited to participate in a statewide work group (NCNA Workgroup) that will assist the roundtables and IBCC as this process moves forward. This proposed strategy was revised based on comments received during the meeting. 1. Goals The goals of this process with the Basin Roundtables and NCNA Workgroup and are to: . Identify priority areas and reaches for environmental and recreational attributes, based on existing data. It is anticipated that the scale of the priority areas and reaches will vary based on data availability. . Identify the quantities of seasonal flows necessary to maintain priority areas and reaches, to the extent possible with existing data, based on agreed-upon methodologies. The level of reach is expected at a minimum to be tributaries to major tributaries of Colorado's mainstem rivers. For example, the Roaring Fork is a major tributary to the Colorado River mainstem and the Poudre is a tributary to the South Platte River mainstem. . Outreach to interested parties (roundtable members, CWCB members, IBCC members, water users, legislators, others) about the existence of the products of this effort so that parties can use the information developed in other water planning efforts. 2. Roles of Basin Roundtables and NCNA Work Group To address common technical platform and to maintain consistency between roundtables when completing their needs assessments, two statewide workgroups will be formed - a nonconsumptive workgroup and consumptive workgroup. In addition, the CWCB will be doing a Supply Availability Study. These three technical elements will serve to support the Basin Needs Assessment as depicted below. Basin Needs Assessments '" North Plalte YampalWhile South Platte Crn.~o ~ Arkansas Consumptive Work Group Supply Availability Non-Consumptive Work Group Page 1 of5 O:\Rinker1olK\SWSf',strategy revised Olju1l07.doc