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-27- Pueblo would be Bureau of Reclatnation projects, the Army Corps of Engineers should continue to be the agency involved on Fountain Creek, Rivera said. Meanwhile, Pitkin County Commissioner Rachel Richards said her county wants stronger guarantees than those negotiated by the Colorado River district. While the district represents several Western Slope counties, water for the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project is diverted from the Roaring Fork basin, which impacts Aspen and other Pitkin County towns. Lake County Commissioner Ken Olsen reiterated similar concerns about providing local storage and recreation opportunities in any enlargement of Turquoise Lake. Pueblo City Council President Judy Weaver argued the language about the Pueblo flow program needs to be in the bill. Pueblo West Metropolitan District Manager Don Saling said the district is beginning engineering work on its river intake below Pueblo Dam, because a plan to hook up with SDS is taking longer than anticipated. Pueblo West now has two pipelines from the dam, but needs another connection for increased capacity and redundancy. After the meeting, when asked whether growing demands for items to be included in legislation have changed Salazar's mind about the focus of the bill. In June, he told the group he wanted to leave all past regional agreements out of the process. He favors letting regional interests work out differences, because two key members of the U. S. House, his brother Rep. John Salazar and Rep. Ed Perlmutter, are members of the majority Democratic Party who represent opposite sides of the issue. Perlmutter represents Aurora, while Rep. Salazar represents much of the Arkansas Valley and the Western Slope. COLORADO RIVER BASIN GLEN CANYON DAM LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTAL PLAN (LTEP): With the FEIS concerning Lower Basin Shortage Criteria and Coordinated Operations of Lakes Powell and Mead nearing completion, Reclamation's efforts on the LTEP EIS process will increase. We have attached hereto a fact sheet describing the LTEP EIS purpose and process that was initiated in December 2006 along with the recently released "matrix of alternatives" that will be evaluated in the EIS process. The 7- Basin States and power interests are concerned that only the "no action" and "Alternative 1" are acceptable operations. Alternatives 2, 3, and 4 represent alternatives requiring annual high flow releases or BHBF'S that are in excess of power plant capacity and for potentially extended periods of time. Instead of conducting these BHBF's in years in which reser~~oir releases in excess of power plant capacity are required for dam safety purposes as originally proposed, the BHBF's will occur when Lake Powell storage is low, although the releases will remain within the scheduled monthly release volumes. Such releases are not consistent with the 1956 Colorado River Storage Project Act, the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act, and the 1992 Grand Canyon Protection Act. Colorado is a cooperating agency in this EIS process, which bears close scrutiny between now and the release of the FEIS in October 2008. COLORADO RIVER WATER USERS ASSOCIATION (CRWUA): The CRWUA will hold their Annual Meeting at Caesars Palace in Las `'eggs, Nevada on December 12-14. The topic of this years meeting is "Global Changes, Local Impacts." The highlight of the meeting is anticipated to be the delivery of the "Record of Decision" for the Environmental Impact Statement concerning, "Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortage Criteria and the Coordinated Operations of Lakes Powell and Mead under low reservoir conditions. Attached is the proposed agenda for the meeting, further information can also be found on the CRWUA website at: Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming