LISA ADD #7 ON SCANNER

• Board Meeting Date: 9/16/2008
• Description: WSP Section - Tamarisk Grant Program Guidelines
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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DRAFT September 16, 2008
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Tamarisk and Russian Olive Control Cost Sharing Grant Program
Guidance and Procedures
background:
The purpose of this Grant Program Guidance and Procedures is to establish and
describe the criteria and process for the issuance and administration of grants from the
Colorado Water Conservation Board's (the Board or CWCB) Tamarisk and Russian
Olive Control Cost Sharing Grant Program. The CWCB is the state executive branch
agency responsibly for state water policy and planning. The Board's mission is to
promote the protection, conservation and development of Colorado's water resources
and minimize the risk of flood damage. Its major programs include Water Supply
Protection; Water Supply Planning and Finance; Conservation and Drought Planning;
Watershed Protection & Flood Mitigation; Instream Flow and Natural Lake Protection;
and Water Infcrma'don.
The grant program is intended to provide cost share assistance to eligible entities to
corjtrol and/or eradicate tamarisk (also known as salt cedar) and/or russian olive (TRO),
two woody invasive phreatophytes that have impaired the state's riparian areas,
restricted channel capacity thereby increasing flood risk, and resulted in increased non-
beneficial consumptive use of water. The program will meet needs identified and
• prioritized in state approved, watershed based TRO control plans.
House Bill 08-1346 enacted by the 2008 Colorado General Assembly, authorized the
Colorado Water Conservation Board's (CWCB) Tamarisk Control Cost Sharing Grant
Program with an initial appropriation of $1 million. While the bill language is silent as to
russian olive control, the Board's plan was always to address both species of
phreatophytes, and has confirmed with the sponsors of HB08-14346 that that was also
the legislative intent.
Fi~~08-1346, SECTaON 29. Tarerisk control cost-sharing gran4 program -
appropriation. (2008 Session Laws, chapter 338, Section 29)
(i) In addition to any other appropriation, there is hereby appropriated, out of any
moneys in the severance fax trust fund operational account not otherwise
appropriated, to the depGrtment of natural resources, for alloca~ion into the
Colorado water conservation board construction fund, for the fiscal year
beginning July 1, 2008, the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000), or so much
thereof as may be necessary, for the board to finance a tamarisk control cost-
sharing grant program.
(2) The moneys appropriafi.ed in subsection (1) of this section shall remain
available for the designated purposes until the project is coi-npleted and shall not
ba subject to the two-year reserve requirement contained in section 39-29-109
(1) (c) (III) (A), Colorado Revised Statutes.