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• Board Meeting Date: 7/11/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

work with Interior and the State Department on those issues. The 7-States also
discussed how they modeled equalization between Lakes Powell and Mead in the DE IS
and Arizona's desire to remove the historic constraints the modeling imposed on
equaliza tion.

Any change to the modeling of this significance at this point in the EIS process is
detrimental to the Upper Basin and strongly opposed by the Upper Basin. Such a
significant change would provide sufficient reason to at least do a supplemental EIS
and would likely be detrimental to the seven states agreement. Further discussion on
this matter will occur at the Board meeting.

The group also received updates on the log-term augmentation study, water delivery
agreements and exhibits to the forbearance agreements. Work in these areas is
progressing well.

Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Goals: Recently, the US Fish and
Wildlife Service announced that it was initiating the review of the Recovery Goals for
the four endangered Colorado River fishes (Colorado Pikeminnow, razorback sucker,
humback chub and bony tail). This 5-year review is mandated by the Endangered
Species Act. Some of the more significant issues anticipated during the review will be
centered around interactions between programs in the Upper and Lower Basin and
consideration of "Distinct Populations" when considering whether or not to down-list
or de-list the species. We will keep the Board informed as this review proceeds.

Colorado River Water Availability Study Initiated: In June CWCB staff met
with the Interbasin Compact Committee (IECC) and members of the four Western Slope
roundtables to discuss the study to evaluate water availability in the Colorado River
basin and its tributaries. Staff also discussed the process that would be used to
implement the study and how to incorporate current and future needs because we hope
the IECC will playa key coordination role with the roundtables to help scope and
consult on the study.

Based on the IEces discussion about a CWCB drafted outline, we will prepare a more
detailed scope of work that explains the study's purpose and the approach that would
be used to do the study. Our initial approach will be based on the work from the
Statewide Water Supply Initiative and then incorporate various scenarios to allow
hydrologic variability and considerations of "risk" of additional water development to
be considered and evaluated.

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