Colorado - Grand County Stream Flow Mgmt Plan Phase III_Re-submittal Water Activity Summary2008

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#4 -Basin-Wide Water Needs Assessment The applicant states that: The SMP as a whole. of which Phase 3 is an integral part, is eiacth- in keeping «ith section 37-7~-10~(2)(c) of the Colorado Revised Statutes in that it is designed to develop a scientific basis for Grand Count<-'s portion of the Upper Colorado River Basin nonconsumptive water supply needs assessment as called for in the statute. The Plan ~~~ill inform Grand County's participation in the Basin Round Table meetings as an "affected local government" and ~~-ill outline Grand County's interests for participation ~~,ith the Basin Round Table and be~-ond. Once completed the SMP findings can be shared «=ith basin users and the SMP itself ~tii11 have the potential to serve as a template for the type of guidance document that can be used ili other watersheds and particularl~T do«mstrearn in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Staff identified an issue with meeting this criterion when the grant request was submitted and then withdrawn by the applicant for the March 2008 Board meeting. Staff has reviewed the current submittal an believes that this criterion has only been partially meet. Please see the discussion and issues/additional needs section below for more information. Fzr~ding Ovetwier~~ Grand County is requesting $100,000 for this grant. To date, the County has already spent $423,849.00 on Phases I and II of the SMP. Phase III costs are $396,546.00. If this grant application is approved for the full amount requested, the county will spend an additional $296,546.00 to see this project to its completion. Discussion: Staff has reviewed the resubmitted information provide by Grand County and we very much appreciate the effort and hard work that went into the revised apporach. Staff is especially appreciative of the additional information that was voluntarily provided regarding how the project meets many of the evaluation criteria which is not required for requests for Basin Funds. hl addition, Grand County has done an excellent job articulating the goals and collaborative approach that will be undertaken in Phase 3 of the SMP. The proposed project builds on two previous phases undertaken by Grand County to address non- consumptive needs in the basin. Phase 3 will complete the SMP. A completed SMP will further develop the Colorado Basin Roundtable's needs assessment and will enable Grand County to negotiate possible solutions in a collaborative manner with water providers. As part of the collaborative process Grand County has indicated that the current outline of the scope of work will be revised with the involvement of Denver and Northern. While staff appreciates that the process will be in iterative process it makes review an evaluation of the project much more difficult because staff is not reviewing the scope that will ultimately be funded. To fairly and effectively administer the grant program and accurately review grant applications staff must have a final scope of work. Without a final scope of work staff can not accurately assess the frill benefits of the project and any relevant issues. However, staff also recognizes the critical need for this project and the extremely complex factors involved in this project and other activities occurring in the Upper Colorado drainage basin. In order to proceed and to help address the above issue staff recommends that the applicant add an additional task entitled "Development and Refinement of Final Scope" in the draft Tetra Tech scope of work. Then provide a narrative outlining the process that will be used to finalize the scope and indicate that the final scope will then be provided to CWCB for approval prior to implementing the final scope.