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<br />. J- ... <br /> <br />people who cannot attend every meeting in a basin or basins where they want to follow the <br />SWSI's progress, the CWCB should take and post minutes of the meetings on the website in a <br />timely manner. <br /> <br />Providing notice to the public of meetings only one, or even two weeks in advance, would be <br />insufficient. To ensure that all individuals within each basin who have an interest in water, <br />particularly in environmental and recreational uses, but who may not hold water rights, have <br />adequate advance notice of the meetings and are prepared to present information regarding water <br />needs they believe the CWCB must factor into the SWSI, the CWCB must give at least a <br />month's notice. Thirty-day notice is typically the bare minimum of what federal and state <br />agencies give prior to important rulemaking proceedings or NEP A process hearings. The SWSI <br />process must be held to a similar standard of full public participation4 <br /> <br />b~ Advance notice of meeting agendas. <br /> <br />Similarly, it is not enough just to 8llllounce that a meeting will occur. Rather, it will be <br />important to make sure that members of the public have adequate information regarding the <br />topics that the Basin Adyisors or CWCB intend to address at each meeting. To the extent that <br />such agendas do not cover all items that may be of interest to the public, including <br />environmental, recreational and other instream water needs, it will also be important to provide <br />for space on the agendas for me~bers of the public to add topics for discussion. <br /> <br />c. Access to the technical information that Basin Advisors are using to develop the basin <br />alternatives ~ <br /> <br />The eWeB has suggested that its contractor chose Basin Advisors based on their access to, and <br />familiarity with, technical information about water demands and supplies. To ensure meaningful <br />public participation, it will be important to share with members of the public, in advance, the <br />technical information regarding these topics. Thus, for example, where Basin Advisors are <br />estimating demand using information provided by various water districts, the public will need to <br />have access to those demand projections, including whether the district calculated demand before: <br />or after implementation of conservation and efficiency strategies. Similarly, where Basin <br />Advisors are determining the impacts of various alternatives on flows within the basin, members <br />of the public will need to have access to the model assumptions so that they can understand, or <br />work with technical consultants to help them understand, the implications of such assumptions, <br />as well as the ramifications for non-traditional uses and values, both consumptive and non- <br />consumptive. If the CWCB and Basin Advisors choose to develop a statewide guidance <br />template to be applied to these and other issues, the public should have adequate opportunity to <br />provide input on its elements and assumptions before it is implemented inside each basin. <br /> <br />d. The ability for members of the public to participate in every meeting. <br /> <br />It would be anathema to meaningful public participation were the eWeB to choose to invite <br />members of the public to all meetings that the Basin Advisors hold, but not to allow those same <br />members of the public to participate fully in all of these meetings. While the CWCB or its <br />contractor may see a difference between the level of interest or sophistication between those who <br />hold water rights and those who do not, we disagree. Many members of the public who do not <br />hold water rights are passionate about their rivers and the environmental, aesthetic, social, <br /> <br />2 <br />