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
DRAFT Minutes of March 16 -17, 2009, Meeting
Page 20
' Shane asked the members to vote on putting the $70K back in based on Steve's recommendation which
reads, "TWG recommends that AMWG direct TWG to develop a final budget recommendation that
reinstates the $70K for the NPS under line 114."
' Voting Results: Yes = 7 No = 9 Abstaining = 1
Recommendation passes fails.
0
1
G
The members voted on the following recommendation: "Discussion should occur between the Park
Service, GCMRC, and Reclamation on the necessity of the $70K for the National Park Service which
was dropped this year from GCMRC's cultural budget, line 114. DOI agencies should discuss and
determine who is responsible for that funding and provide a response to the TWG by May 22, 2009."
Voting Results: Yes = 14 No = 1 Abstaining = 0
Recommendation passes.
Dennis said the discussion on the CPI and the treatment plan were deferred for this discussion and said
those issues would affect the amount of money that was available for the treatment plan. He said if these
are reported as being deficiencies in the treatment plan, then it should be modified to ensure the whole
range of responsibilities are covered and not developing a series of add -ons whose connection to the
treatment plan isn't clear.
6. Line 31 (cont). Shane read the following: "TWG recommends that AMWG direct TWG to develop a final
budget recommendation that does not increase line 31 by CPI and that this be adopted as policy for future
budgets." He asked if there was agreement if it should stay at $500K or if people felt it should be increased
by the CPI. Dennis said Mike has an alternative which would be to fund the $200K that was taken out in the
first year and that would cover the additional monitoring. Mike said it would cover his tribal involvement if
they were to make their contractor uphold. Shane clarified that this would be an additional $200K. Shane
said the program agreed to the $500K for the treatment plan. He thinks it should be clarified and that it not
be increased by the CPI. However, he feels they also need to deal with the whole issue of underfunding of
the cultural program under #16 and that this issue gets fully explained to the AMWG. Mike said the program
agreed to fund for $500K but they only received $300K for the first year.
Status � Removed from the list. Reclamation will make the change in the budget.
Diamond Creek Gage Discontinuation. Dr. Bob Hart (USGS, Water Resources, Arizona Water Science
Center). He is in charge of the Flagstaff programs office and recently took over as the scientist in charge of
the Flagstaff science center. He has been working on the Colorado River for a lot of years and said he
wanted to give a brief overview of their gage that is operated just above Diamond Creek. He proceeded with
a PPT, "Colorado River at Diamond Creek" (Attachment 10).
Q: Was your budget specifically cut causing this station to be reduced or just your costs are increasing and the costs
won't let it continue? (Ostler)
A: It was a flat - funded program so over the years the costs got to be too much. Actually NASQAN went through
various redesigns. In the early 1970's the whole program had over 500 stations. Then it was redesigned in the 1980's
and the gages were reduced and then when the Natdon Creek site online, that further redesigned the program and
they were all related to budget cuts. In 2000, the directed most of the NASQAN funding to the Yukon so we were cut
back to a bare minimum. Most of the funding now is going to the Mississippi Basin. (Hart)
Q: So your last round of sampling would be the end of this fiscal year? (Ostler)
A: Sampling for the NASQAN gage was stopped in September 2007. (Hart)
Q: 1 presume the Arizona water quality folks have a responsibility of assessing the quality of all the waters in the state
probably used the data from that gage or by chance are they also sampling? (Ostler)
A: To my knowledge they're not sampling at Diamond Creek. We do have a program with the Arizona Dept. of
Environmental Quality and they provide funding for the Lees Ferry gage. (Hart)
Q: Can you take us through your process and tell us where in the hierarchy these decisions get made so that we know
if we want to try and influence that process in the future, where would be effective? (Kubly)
A: NASQAN and other national programs are managed out of our office of water quality in Reston, Virginia. The office
of water quality make the decisions about the funding. (Hart)