14d ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 7/22/2008
• Description: Directors' Reports - CWCB Director
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

3,44137 acre-feet of Arkansas River consumptive use water attributable to the changed water rights of
the Colorado Canal. The water was released from Lake Meredith and delivered to John Martin Reservoir
as repayment to Kansas for cumulative under deliveries claimed back to 1996. The Board of Water of
Pueblo will repay Colorado Springs for this release with transmountain water at a time and location yet to
be determined. (Randy Seaholm)
TOWN OF GRANADA RECEIVES GOOD NEWS FROM CORPS -The Town of Granada,
Colorado is once again part of the Corps of Engineers' Inspection Program and Project Eligibility
Program thanks to local efforts and significant from the CWCB. The Town passed an inspection on their
levee by the Corps of Engineers in early June, which enables them to remain on the Corps levee
inspection program. This levee, which previously received an "unsatisfactory" rating in 2007 due to
structural problems, was scheduled to be eliminated from the Corps program if suitable upgrades didn't
occur. The inspection program, in general, allows communities to ask for federal repair funds in the event
that their federal flood protection projects are damaged during a flood event. The communities, however,
are responsible for ownership and maintenance of their flood protection facilities. The Corps' role is
merely for periodic inspection. The Town was granted $75,000 from one of the Section's regular
programmatic accounts, and significant technical assistance from the CWCB Watershed Protection and
Flood Mitigation staff during the upgrade work. According to Jerene DeBono, mayor of Granada and
Project Manager for the Town, "the Town could not have completed this project without the both the
financial and technical assistance of the CWCB." Granada has a population of 600, and Ms. DeBono
states that while the Town did include a substantial local match, it could not have afforded the entire
project on its own. (Tom Browning)
SEO'S SURFACE WATER CONSUMPTIVE USE RULES - By order issued May 12, 2008
SEO Dick Wolfe created an "Advisory Committee for Arkansas River Compact Rules to Govern
Improvements to Surface Water Irrigation Systems". As CWCB Director I am a member of the
Committee, as are our two ARCA representatives; Matt Heimerich and Colin Thompson. Steve Miller
from staff will be assisting me and the committee. The committee will consider the need for and data
supporting the proposed rules to limit the potential for expanded consumptive use of irrigation water
made possible through improved irrigation efficiency. This potential is expressly prohibited by the
Arkansas River Compact, and as efficiencies are improved offsetting measures will be necessary to avoid
increased depletions to Stateline flows. The first Committee meeting was held on July 9 in Pueblo at
which I was represented by Dan McAuliffe. A second meeting has been scheduled for July 30 in LaJunta.
Dick Wolfe can report more on this activity during his SEO report. (Steve Miller)
SPRINGS SNAPS AT UDALL REQUEST TO DELAY SDS - A request by U.S. Rep. Mark
Udall to delay the environmental impact statement for the Southern Delivery System has sparked an
angry response from some Colorado Springs business leaders and politicians.
The group wrote Udall last week to express "strong opposition" to Udall's June 261etter to the Bureau of
Reclamation, requesting a delay in the EIS because of the potential for a lawsuit over the document. Udall
also cited comments by Bob Rawlings, publisher of The Pueblo Chieftain, and "others like them" as his
support for seeking a delay.
Udall echoes the maj or point in Rawlings' letter to Reclamation was that growth and development in
Colorado Springs will impact flooding on Fountain Creek, and that this issue was not adequately
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