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. . . Western States Water Council Executive Committee Minutes Washington, D.C. March 26, 2006 Both WGA and the WSWC have been invited to testify at a hearing on Good Samaritan clean ups on Thursday, March 30. This is an oversight hearing in the House. Paul Frohardt will be testifying. On April 27, WGA has been invited to testify on the drought oversight hearing on the NIDIS bill. This is before the Senate Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Natural Disasters. Senator Ben Nelson is the Chair. With respect to the other priorities ofWGA, ESA doesn't seem to be going anywhere, although there is a lot of activity. Immigration is taking up a lot ofWGA's time presently. 2006 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WORK PLAN - WATER MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM Chairman Simpson called the committee's attention to Tab G, which contains the Executive Committee's work plan item for the Water Management Symposium. The Council will sponsor a symposium on emerging issues in the fall of2006. A Subcommittee is recommended and proposed. Dave Pope would chair the subcommittee since he is the Chair of the Water Resources Committee. The staff is proposing holding the meeting the second week in November in southern California in the Orange County Costa Mesa area. Stephen Bernath offered that climate change is becoming a "big deal" in Washington. He was asked to comment and ask if climate change might be considered for the symposium topic. Hal noted that it may depend on the direction received from the WGA. Certainly, climate change was considered in one of the sessions at the workshop on March 27. SUN SETTING POLICY POSITIONS There are three sunsetting positions that will be taken up at the various committee meetings. Position #249 on protecting ground water quality will be taken up by the Water Quality Committee. Position #250 supporting Indian water rights settlements will be modified and will be taken up by the Legal Committee. Finally, Position #251 on primacy regarding water rights and water quality certification in hydropower licensing would go to both the Water Resources and Water Quality Committees. FUTURE COUNCIL MEETINGS The next meetings ofthe Council will be held in Breckenridge, Colorado, July 19-21, and the Fall meetings will be held in Sheridan, Wyoming, the first week of October. A. "Water Availability" Workshop Chairman Simpson summarized that the Council was approached by USGS to hold a joint meeting to focus on water availability. They wanted to hold the meeting in July in Breckenridge, but in light of other issues already scheduled for that meeting, it was not good timing. Thus, it is now being proposed that it be held in conjunction with the Water Information Management Systems (WIMS) workshop. 5