Incorporation of Governance Committee Comments on draft IMRC

• Description: related to the Platte River Endangered Species Partnership ‎(aka Platte River Cooperative Agreement [CA]; aka Platte River Recovery Implementation Program [PRRIP])‎
• State: CO
• State: NE
• State: WY
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 9/19/2000
• Author: PRRIP Technical Committee
• Title: RE: Incorporation of Governance Committee Comments on draft IMRC
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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THE PLATTE RIVER PROJECT
November 17, 1999
RE: Platte River Cooperative Agreement
Comments on Technical Committee's draft `integrated Monitoring and Research
Component"
Dear Technical Committee Members:
The Platte River Project has reviewed the October 6, 1999 draft Integrated Monitoring and
Research Component ( "IMRC ") prepared by the Technical Committee. The draft IMRC is a useful
product to inform Governance Committee discussions concerning the amount of monitoring and
research to be approved as part of the proposed Program, and we appreciate the obvious time and
effort that went into its preparation. We offer the following comments for the GC's consideration.
At the outset, it is important that the proposed IMRC tasks and related expenditures be
considered in the context of the overall Program budget and competing demands for Program dollars.
Total state and federal contributions through the first increment of the proposed Program were
established at $75 Million, as reflected in Appendix B to the Cooperative Agreement. State
legislative approvals supporting Colorado's participation in the Cooperative Agreement have been
based on the understanding that Colorado's total cash and cash equivalent contribution toward first
increment Program costs will be $15 Million. Many critical tasks must be accomplished with these
funds, including the protection of habitat lands and the reduction of shortages to target flows
required to meet first increment objectives.
We are concerned that the proposed IMRC budget of over $19 Million, taken together with
anticipated financial requests from other committees, could exceed the Program's budget and could,
if approved, erode the financial resources needed to implement substantive land and water measures
for the species. Accordingly, for each task in the proposed IMRC budget, we think the Governance
Committee should ask the following questions:
A. Is information from this task essential to evaluate the effect of Program land and water
measures? The Governance Committee should have a clear understanding of whether a
given task is essential to enable an estimate of biological responses from Program activities,
or whether the task proposed will yield information that is only generally helpful to an
improved understanding of the species. The GC can then make decisions on whether or not
to fund given activities in view of Program responsibilities and overall budgetary constraints.
One example concerns the goal of the proposed Program to "test the assumption that it is