Agenda Items 7a and 7b, 2007 Board Meeting

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STATE OF COLORADO Colorado Water Conservation Board Department of Natural Resources A z /- • 13 13 tihl'I'llldll Sfl'El'f, RUolll 721 Danwer, Coloradu 80203 Ph4-„ic: (303) sc16-1441 FAA: (303) ?hh--1474 77 WVVW.CWlb.tif lfl'.lU.L1S Bill P.itte,•, Jr. Govemor To: CWCB Members HarrisD.Sherman ExecuHve Dirertor From: Randy Seaholm r:oa huh.t,?ch Ted KOW11S1C1 CWCB Director Dan McAuliffe Date: March 5, 2007 Deputy Direetor Re: Agenda Item 7a and 7b, March 12-13, 2007 Board Meeting, Water Suppty Protection - Platte River Endangered Species Recovery Implementation Program Background ln 1997, the Governors of the States of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming signed an agreement with the Depaliment of Interior to improve and/or study the habitat of four endangered species in the Central Platte River in Nebraska. The Cooperative Agreement ("CA") was extended several times while the three States, the federal government, and the stakeholders continued to negotiate the Platte • River Recovery Implementation Program ("Program") Agreeinent. The Bureau of Reclamation the Interior, water providers, and environmental entities, to provide benefits for the endangered interior least tern, whooping crane, and pallid sturgeon and the threatened piping plover (the target species) with a goal of recovering the target species. A map of the Platte River program area is included in the attached fact sheet. Through the Program, the States and the federal government will provide iand, water, and systematic monitoring and research. The Program is designed to be increinental, with the first increment lasting at least 13 years. During the first increment, the program objectives are to: 1) retime and improve flows in the centra( Platte River by an average of 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet per year at Grand Island, Nebraska; 2) protect, restore, and rnaintain 10,000 ac?-es of habitat between Lexington and Chapman Nebraska; and, 3) implement the integrated ?nonitori»g and research plan ("IMRP") throLigh the Adaptive Management Plan ("AMP"). Wildlife Service ("FWS") issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement ("FE[S"}, final Biological Opinion (`BO"), and Record of Decision ("ROD") respectively, in May, J une, and October, 2006. In the fall of 2006, Governor Heineman, Governor Freudenthal, Governor Owens, and Secretary Kempthorne signed the Program Agreement. ("The PBOR") anrogramd is a Fish basi and n-wide effort undertaken by Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, the Department of The total cost of the program is $316 million. The monetary cost of the first increment of the program is S 1S7 million (in 2005 dollars, the final cash contribLitions wii] have to be adjusted for inflation). In addition to monetary contributions the States will contribute water and land to the pro ,gram. The States will receive $130 million credit for land and water contributions and contribute ! $30 million in cash. Wyoming will be contributing $6 million and Colorado will be contributing $24 million. The Department of the Interior will contribute $157 million in cash. The total burden of the Fluud Prutection • Water Suppl}' Planning and Finanm • Stream and Lake Protection Water Supply Protectiun • Conservatiun and Drought Planiung