Administrative Record 1-11

• Year: 2009
• Instream Flow Rules - Doc Type: Rulemaking Hearings

• Allow parties to sign up on a basin wide a-mail list.
• Provide written notice to counties, conservancy and conservation districts which encompass
• all or a portion of the instream flow reach.
For the public notice to be effective, and for the public to have a meaningful opportunity to
comment, at the time of the public notice the CWCB should also have available a specific plan
for how the v~~ater right will be used by the CWCB, and any engineering analyses needed to
support the proposed use of the water right.
C. Benefit to the natural environment: The FRWC would propose the following criteria for
use in evaluation of "benefit to the natural environment":
(i) The natural environmental attribute or attributes to be preserved or enhanced in the instream
flow reach in question must be specifically identified.
(ii) The amount of water needed to achieve the level of preservation or enhancement should be
specified.
(iii) The water available under the lease must be adequate in time and amount to preserve or
enhance the identified environmental attribute either alone or in combination with other water
available to the CWCB in the same reach. This finding should be based upon the credible
factual/scientific evidence in the administrative record before the Board on the proposed contract
or agreement.
(iv) The factuaL!scientific evidence shall be developed based upon the same methodology
employed by the CWCB staff in deciding to adjudicate an original CWCB instream flow or
minimum lake level appropriation.
(v) The benefits associated with the dilution of pollutants should not be a basis upon which to
accept a proposed contract or agreement.
(vi) The Board should take into consideration whether a like amount of water is otherwise
available through an original appropriation or the fee purchase or donation of a water right and,
if so, it shall gi~Te preference to such other acquisition option.
(vii) The contract or agreement should terminate by its terms upon a determination by the Board
that the natural environmental attributes for which the water was acquired have been lost and
there is no reasonable prospect of the recovery of the same, or other changes in stream condition
make the contract or agreement unnecessary.
(viii) The contract or agreement should recognize by its terms that the benefits to the
preservation or enhancement of the natural environmental maybe lost on the termination thereof
unless the water available thereunder is replaced, in whole or in part, from another source.
(ix) The Board should consider the ability of the natural environmental attribute to persist upon
expiration of the lease and removal of the water obtained thereunder.
D. Calculation of compensation:
(i) The compensation to be paid for the water received under the contract or agreement should
not be materially in excess of the then current market value of a like limited interest in water
used for other beneficial purposes. Evidence of such market value should be placed in the
administrative record before the Board.
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