Agenda Item 21, July 5-6, 2006 Board Meeting, Water Supply Protection

• Description: Platte River Endangered Species Program
• State: CO
• Date: 7/12/2006
• Author: Randy Seaholm, Ted Kowalski, Colorado Water Conservation Board
• Title: Agenda Item 21, July 25 -26, 2006 Board Meeting, Water Supply Protection — Platte River Endangered Species Program Background
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

STATE OF COLORADO
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us
Bill Owens
Governor
To: CWCB Members Russell George
Executive Director
From: Randy Seaholm Rod Kuharich
Ted Kowalski CWCB Director
Rick Brown
Date: July 12, 2006 Acting Deputy
Director
Re: Agenda Item 21, July 25 -26, 2006 Board Meeting, Water Supply Protection —
Platte River Endangered Species Program
Background
In 1997, the Governors of the States of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming signed an agreement with
the Department 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 through June
30, 2005 to allow additional time to formulate a proposed Program and complete National
Environmental Policy Act ( "NEPA ") compliance. The CA was further extended to allow the
Governance Committee ( "GC ") to finalize and get the Program into place. The current CA expires
on September 30, 2006.
The Bureau of Reclamation (`BOR ") and Fish and Wildlife Service ( "FWS ") issued the Final
Environmental Impact Statement ( "FEIS ") and final Biological Opinion (`BO "), respectively, in May
and June, 2006. A Record of Decision should follow in the next few months.
The State of Wyoming and the federal government have expressed support for signing the Program
agreement as soon as possible. The State of Nebraska will be holding hearings on the proposed
Program in September and October, 2006. Consequently, a new cooperative agreement will be
necessary to further establish the foundation for the Program, and to provide regulatory coverage for
water projects that rely on the Program for compliance with the Endangered Species Act. This new
cooperative agreement would have to become effective on or before October 1, 2006 and could
terminate when a final Program agreement is executed. We will keep the Board informed about this
possibility, and bring it back to the Board in September.
The proposed program would be a basin -wide effort undertaken by Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska,
and the Department of the Interior to provide benefits for the endangered interior least tern,
whooping crane, and pallid sturgeon and the threatened piping plover (the target species). See the
attached map of the Platte River program area. Through the program the States and the federal
government would provide land, water, and systematic monitoring and research. The Program is
designed to be incremental, 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 central Platte River by
Flood Protection • Water Supply Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation and Drought Planning