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CWCB Members <br />Status of Platte River Cooperative Agreement Implementation <br />September 21, 1998 <br />Through two grants to the South Platte Lower River Group, Inc. (SPLRG), the CWCB has <br />catalyzed efforts to begin managed groundwater re- regulation projects on the lower South Platte <br />River between Sterling and the state -line. CWCB funds have been effectively leveraged <br />through the contributions of many other parties. Two wells have been installed at the DOW - <br />owned Tamarack Ranch and Pony Express state wildlife areas, and additional well development <br />is pending. A draft Environmental Assessment for the installation of additional wells at state <br />wildlife areas has been prepared. A draft contract between DOW, SPLRG, and possibly the <br />CWCB defining operational procedures, long -term ownership and operation and maintenance <br />responsibilities, and allocation of recharge credits, is under review. <br />V. Land Committee <br />This sub - committee's primary purpose over the next several months is to fill in gaps in the proposed <br />program's land protection measures so that. the NEPA process can fully analyze it as the preferred <br />alternative. <br />Background: During negotiations on the Cooperative Agreement, the parties agreed relatively <br />quickly to a land protection goal during the first 13 to 16 year increment of 10,000 acres. <br />Thereafter, negotiators focused almost exclusively on water management questions and on <br />questions centered on the equitable division of responsibility for the program. As a result, the <br />Cooperative Agreement does not specifically address which lands to protect or how protection is to <br />be accomplished. <br />With "passive" approval of the Governance Committee, several interested parties in Nebraska <br />assumed the responsibility for addressing these outstanding questions, and devised a sub - committee <br />decision - making process in which anyone who showed up at a meeting -- informed or otherwise -- <br />could participate in its deliberations and vote. Since last winter, Dan Luecke, Alan Berryman and I <br />repeatedly voiced concern that this unstructured, ad hoc structure would not likely produce results <br />in which all the parties could have confidence. We have been assured that this approach is <br />necessary to achieve widespread understanding and "buy -in" among Nebraska land owners. <br />Issues / Developments: <br />• I am acting as the State of Colorado's representative to the Land sub - committee. Brad Wind, an <br />employee of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, is acting as the Colorado water <br />users' representative, and is being supported by Steve Dougherty, a private consulting ecologist. <br />To effectively address all the activities of the Land Committee, additional expertise may need to <br />be retained, including, for example, an economist expert in evaluating 3rd party effects of land <br />transactions; neutral facilitators expert in mediation and public meeting management techniques <br />in highly contentious settings; a land protection specialist expert in protecting land for public <br />purposes through willing seller transactions; and an ecologist capable of evaluating and ranking <br />properties to protect. <br />• To accomplish its goals, the Land sub - committee has developed several working groups, <br />including a mapping group, a group to assess 3rd party effects possibly associated with <br />5 <br />