21 ‎(4)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 3/18/2008
• Description: CF Section - Severance Tax Trust Fund Operational Account Recommendations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

that promote maximum utilization, prevent flooding, and allow Colorado to fully use its compact
entitlements.
Water Planning Relationship: RICD water rights, and the structures themselves, affect water
planning in many important ways. The statutes and CWCB's policies on these types of rights
demonstrate a need to ensure compliance by local communities and to help protect Colorado's
compact entitlements and to assure maximum utilization of Colorado's water resources. To the
extent that these structures are designed and constructed in a manner that promotes maximum
utilization of Colorado's water resources and that allows Colorado to fully use its compact
entitlements, then C~VCB's missions are being fulfilled.
Recommendation: Staff gives a high recommendation to this project because the funding will
help to enhance compliance with the goals of maximum utilization of water resources and promoting
non-consumptive uses within Colorado, in an appropriate manner.
5. Colorado River and Mexican Delta Project
Beneficiary/Grantee/Contractor: CWCB, Various
Amount of Request: $100,000 Ranking: Medium
Product Produced: CWCB has either been monitoring or working on issues associated with the
development of shortage criteria for Mexico, opportunities in Mexico to augment the Colorado River
System, and water supplies for the Colorado River Delta in Mexico. The overall purpose for this
expenditure of $100,000 is to protect Colorado's compact apportionment in the process. This will
be done in cooperation with the Departments of Interior and State, the Bureau of Reclamation, the
International Boundary of Water Commissions (IBWC), the 7-Colorado River Basin States and
major water and power users. The geographic focus of this effort will be on the Colorado River and
Colorado River Delta in Mexico. As the IBWC discusses these issues with Mexico it may become
necessary for Colorado to become more deeply involved in those discussions in order to protect the
States' interests in Colorado River water. Staff has previously been involved in issues with Mexico,
including control of salinity in the Colorado River (Minute 242 of the Treaty) which ultimately led
to the establishment of the Colorado River Salinity Control Program. More recently, staff was
involved in the efforts by Mexico and environmental groups to obtain water from the Colorado River
for the benefit of wetlands that had developed along the "Main Outlet Drain" and the Santa Clara
Slough (Colorado River Delta) and which efforts lead to Minute 306 of the Treaty. It is anticipated
that the current efforts will likely lead to another Mexican Treaty minute.
Water Planning Relationship: Protection of Colorado's Compact apportionments is essential
to planning for the utilization of Colorado's water resources. Understanding how Mexican Treaty
deliveries are made is important to understanding the obligations and limitations placed on water
development and use in the Upper Colorado River Basin and in Colorado. This understanding
frames some of the limitations that Colorado will have to deal with in determining how to address
the "GAP" identified in SWSI and the probability of and the methods that need to be reviewed when
addressing water right administration issues associated with potential compact curtailments.
Recommendation: Staff gives a medium recommendation to this project because other funding
may still be available during this fiscal year.
6