Technical Work Group Meetings 2009

• Description: Technical Work Group Meetings 2009
• State: CO
• Date: 9/29/2009
• Title: Technical Work Group Meetings 2009
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

' Glen Canyon Dam Technical Work Group Page 2
DRAFT Minutes of March 16 -17, 2009, Meeting
' Roles Ad Hoc Group Report. Shane said the latest revision of the Roles AHG Report was completed in
December 2008. Tom Ryan said that Kameran Onley reconstituted a new ad hoc group with the goal of
trying to finish it under her tenure. Unable to complete, she made a decision to not adopt the report but pass
it on to the new Secretary's Designee. The report is currently with Larry Walkoviak who is waiting for further
direction from the new Secretary's Designee.
' New Business:
' Department Memos: Shane said there were two memos distributed from Kameran Onley. The first one
focused on her thoughts while serving as the Secretary's Designee (Attachment 3a), the second memo
focused on the role of science in the AMP, more interagency cooperation within DOI, and the future of the
AMP (Attachment 3b).
' Next AMWG Meeting. The next AMWG meeting will be April 29 -30 and their biggest issue will be the
FY2010 -11 budget. Other issues will be the HEC -RAS motion they passed at their last meeting and
management actions.
Roles and Ethics Responsibilities of the TWG. Randy Seaholm distributed copies of a letter, "Subject:
' Decision Making Process Associated with the GCD Operations GCDAMP(Attachment 4) prepared by the
seven basin state AMWG members. He said one of his concerns in this process is the group keeps jumping
outside the process and if people aren't getting want they want, they find other forums. In particular there is
' a lawsuit going on, there have been a couple of criticisms from the Park Service about the process, and the
states feel very strongly that these are inconsistent with the directions given to the TWG. The TWG is
supposed to be responding to issues directed from the AMWG, staying focused on science questions, and
' not getting into policy questions such as those posed by the Park Service. He advised the members to read
the TWG Operating Procedures again which states the TWG is supposed to be looking at reviews, science
updates, and formulating questions designed to look at monitoring and research, and to look at those with
respect to how they might go into some annual reports. He feels the TWG is drifting too far from those tasks
' and that's the reason for the letter. He feels there is plenty of support for that and advised looking into the
AMWG Charter as well. He feels the TWG really needs to stay focused and not jump into other side issues.
' Questions Posed by Norm Henderson. Shane said he wants the TWG to work in a situation where if people
bring up important questions, they have a chance to air them at the TWG, but in this situation he doesn't
believe Norm's questions are appropriate for the TWG to tackle and said Tom Ryan would help him deal
with the issue. However, he first wanted Norm to address his concerns:
• Update on how the Department intends to prepare the annual operations report to congress (Sec. 1804(c)(2)) -
update TWG on the purpose, who is responsible, contents, timeframe, TWG role?
• Update on how the department intends to prepare the annual financial report to congress (Sec. 1804(e) and
1807) - same parameters as above
• Update on the five -year review of the GCD operating criteria - when will the review take place, how will
' AMP /TWG be involved?
Norm said he was interested in an update essentially of where the TWG is going with regard to three
processes: One being the required annual report and how the TWG fits into that, although he said there are
actually two reports that are required by the GCPA. One could be called the annual financial report and the
other would be the Report to Congress with regard to the operations of Glen Canyon Dam, and the third is
' the required 5 -year review of the Glen Canyon Dam Operating Criteria. He feels these reports have a lot of
relevance to what the TWG does and what input they might have.
' Tom said the 1804 report Norm referenced is being developed and Reclamation is making progress on it.
There have been discussions on the report at the RD's level and also at the DOI staff level. However, it's
not done. He said he wasn't sure if the 1807 report was ever done so he had no information to provide.