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

Recommendation: Staff gives a low recommendation to the funding of this project because of the
limited funding available and no specific public benefit being identified. In addition, there vas no
public entity participating in or sponsoring this work.
Stream and Lake Protection Program
1. Instream Flow Case Management Support
Beneficiary/Grantee/Contractor: CWCB, Various
Amount of Request: $50,000 Ranking: High
Product Produced: Amore organized, focused and efficient approach to resolving or litigating
water court cases to prevent injury to the Board's Instream flow (ISF) and natural lake level (NLL)
water rights. To legally protect the Board's ISF and NLL water rights, CWCB staff currently is
working on over 125 active water court cases to prevent injury to ISF or NLL water rights. For each
case, staff reviews the applicant's engineering reports and proposed rulings, develops protective
terms and conditions to be included in the resulting stipulation and court decree, and, when
agreement upon such terms and conditions is not feasible, coordinates with the Attorney General's
Office on developing legal strategy and arguments and participating in trial. One staff member is
responsible for (1) keeping track of and prioritizing review of all pending cases in coordination with
the Section's engineer, (2) coordinating with the Attorney General's Office on meeting court
deadlines and developing settlement and/or litigation strategies, (3) negotiating protective terms and
conditions, (4) keeping case files organized and up to date, (5) maintaining the Section's electronic
case database, (6) preparing various documents and presentations for Board meetings, and (6)
numerous other substantive and clerical duties related to water court litigation. The same staff
member also is responsible for the ISF Water Acquisition Program. Due to the need to fulfill all of
the above-described responsibilities, staff frequently falls behind in responding to requests for
comments on proposed court rulings, which can result in water court cases taking longer to be
finalized and costing more for all parties involved. Using this funding, the Section will retain apart-
time paralegal to assist the Section with ISF case management, including organizing case files,
tracking court deadlines, prioritizing case review, and drafting pleadings, memos, correspondence
and other documents as appropriate. This project will enable staff to focus on more substantive
duties and resolve more cases in a timely manner.
Water Planning Relationship: This project will enable CWCB staff to resolve water court
cases more quickly and effectively, resulting in both savings and certainty to local water providers
and other water users, many of which are located in areas impacted by energy and mineral
development.
Recommendation: Staff gives a high recommendation to funding for this project because of its
importance to local water planning efforts.
2. Meeting Colorado's Non-consumptive Water Needs
Beneficiary/Grantee/Conh•actor: CWCB, Various
Amount of Request: $125,000 Ranking: High
Product Produced: The goal of this project is to prioritize, coordinate and implement non-
consumptive water needs identified by the Basin Roundtables and other stakeholders by utilizing the
tools available through CWCB's Instream Flow and Natural Lake Level Program ("ISF
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