RGBRT Minutes 4-8-08 FINAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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RGBRT - April 8, 2008 - Minutes Discussion: Travis had some questions about the timing of invoices and payments; Jim explained that the SOW would set that up. Mike G. suggested that Jim put the invoicing process into the final contract. Jim said the CDPHE wanted them to have a Project Manager, someone working on this project 20 hrs per week, but when he told them they would have to cut back on stream work to pay for that, they backed off on that requirement. They're still working on the SOW. Mike asked if the delay in getting the contract was on Jim's shoulders. Travis said he had talked to Rick Brown and CWCB is aware that an extension might be needed. Travis explained CWCB has limited staff, lots of conditions, and insofar as timing is concerned, a number of projects may not meet the 6 month threshold to have contracts in place with the State from CWCB approval. • Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust - "Rio Grande Initiative" - $1,500,000. Conservation easement acquisition Rio de la Vista -- Just got the award two weeks ago and are very grateful. Submitted a Roundtable approved request to CWCB in September, lost by one vote, mostly due to members being absent, so the proposal was restructured. Thanks to Rio Grande Roundtable approving $200,000 of Basin Funds plus having GOCO funds in hand of $7.5 million, the proposal was persuasive to the Board. Total approved was $200K in basin funds plus $1,300K in State funds. Hope to get GOCO, DOW, all these agencies to work together. I'll let you know. JB - there's a nice write-up in the Creede paper. • San Luis Valley Irrigation District - Rio Grande Reservoir Rehabilitation. $288,000 grant to do a multi-use enlargement study of reservoir. Travis Smith -- The Rio Grande Reservoir Multi-Use Enlargement study is in Stage II - it's been going on for six years. Came to the Roundtable in November, '06; went to CWCB in March; got Contract in July '07; started receiving reimbursements in September `07. The questions we are asking are "Is there water available in the Basin for additional storage? Who could use the additional storage, SLVID, CDOW, SLVWCD, etc.?" About 70% complete with the overall study. Discussion: Preliminary design is looking at options for new outlet tunnel etc.. Escalating costs. Doing a cost analysis now. The project has been reimbursed SB179 moneys and has spent approximately 70%. Questions: What is EPAT? Extreme Precipitation Analysis Tool - a tool developed by HRS, a consulting engineering company. It takes historic rain events, basin data, boils them down to specific sites. Charlie - have you come up with any surprises? Landslide issues from a mountain just above the reservoir requires doing some geotechnical monitoring. Potential storage ageements - District is optimistic about working out storage agreements - we might work out the agreements but will we have the storage? How are you going to pay for a $22M project? Rio - rehab v. enlargement? Travis: The SLVID Board decided to focus in on rehab because of uncertainty of legal questions and what a NEPA analysis might call for. We sense the urgency of trying to go forward because the funding is there, severance tax, etc. If project is tied up in a NEPA analysis for several years then what happens to the funding? • Alamosa River Instream Flow Project: Terrace Reservoir Hydrologic Modeling, Site Survey, and Mapping. $64,500 from Roundtable Basin Account - Rodney Reinhardt Approved by the Roundtable in January,'07; Approved by CWCB in Canyon City in March '07. Rod explained that the EPAT did not work so well for analyzing the PMF for this project. Currently using Montgomery Watson to develop an Incremental Damage Assessment to determine the inflow design flood for the spillway improvements of Terrace Reservoir. Have identified two potential sellers of water rights for purchase for "In-stream Flow". The site survey and mapping is Page 3 of 5