25d ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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end of the Grand Mesa along Lands End Road. The location was picked because there is hard line phone
connection that was available to be dedicated to the generator. Next summer the CWCB will assist in
trouble shooting radio and cell communication on the Grand Mesa and then possibly relocate this
generator to the top of Grand Mesa.
A meeting was held with Don Meyer and Dave panzer of the Colorado River Water Conservation District
on Friday October 26`1i to brief them on the CWCB and Colorado River agreement activities and enlist
their support as we get into the details of maximizing benefits and refining and modernizing cloud
seeding operations on the western slope. Dave panzer expressed interest in assisting with the Gunnison
and Grand Mesa programs.
NEW MEXICO CLOUD SEEDING AGREEMENT: The CWCB is nearing completion of an
agreement with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission that will bring $42,000 in funding to
extend and expand operations in the eastern half of the San Juan Mountains for the winter of 2007-08.
The agreement is similar to the other Colorado River agreement and has the potential to be a multi-year
collaboration based on funding and agreement on activities. The New Mexico funding is timely as one of
the main funding partners in the Eastern San Juan Mountains program, the Pagosa Springs W&S, has
other priorities this year planning for a water project. One new generator will be added near Edith,
Colorado that would cloud seed the mountains above the Navajo and Little Navajo Rivers. The rest of the
funding will be spread around evenly to operate all the generators that comprise Eastern San Juan
Mountains cloud seeding program.
COLORADO RIVER BASIN SALINITY CONTROL PROGRAM: The fall 2007 Forum and
Advisory Council meetings were held in Santa Fe, NM on October 30-31. A featured guest at the Forum
meeting was U.S. Commissioner Carlos Marin of the International Boundary and Water Commission,
vvho reported on a number of ongoing activities concerning water management between the U.S. and the
Republic of Mexico. The Work Group also met in Santa Fe on October 29. The WG has begun
analyzing salinity concentration projections as it prepares to draft the 2008 Triennial Review of the
Colorado River Water Quality Standards for Salinity, and there is very little risk of exceeding the numeric
criteria in the next 3 years, therefore the program will proceed based on the value of economic damages
avoided by an aggressive control strategy. The issue of USDA producer cost-share rates has been
deferred for another year as USDA awaits enactment of the new Farm Bill before implementation of the
Advisory Council Sub-Committee's June 2007 recommendation to develop an incentive bonus element to
the financial assistance package producers receive for participation in the program.
USBR has provided its revised Basinwide Salinity Program Review based on comments Independent
Review Team. Steve Miller represents us on that team. The review is intended to allow the USBR, in
conjunction with the Advisory Council and Forum, to make recommendations for changes to improve
USBR project development, comparison, and implementation. Thee review is now scheduled for
completion in January 2008, and Reclamatio0n will make no program changes until after- the review is
completed. In anticipation of a new contracting procedure identified in the review a Funding Opportunity
Announcement ("FOA") will be issued by the end of this year, for contracts that might be finalized and
awarded by October of 2008. The FOA process addresses one of Colorado's key concerns with the
existing USBR Basinwide Program.
Another issue addressed in the USBR Review is the authority to continue operating the Basin Sates
parallel Program, which is delivered in Colorado by the Colorado State Conservation Board within the
Colorado Dept. of Agriculture. This extremely popular program has been in existence for approximately
10 years and provides a vehicle for the States to meet their required cost-share obligation on the USDA
program by using the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basin Development Funds to implement
complimentary irrigation improvement projects in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The Colorado
program relies heavily on local conservation districts and has resulted in re-vitalization of the local role in
Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming