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Animas -La Plata and Project Finance Committee Minutes
April 23, 2009
Animas — La Plata Committee — Ann Nichols and Frank Kugel
Project Finance Committee — Chair Ann Nichols, Frank Kugel and Ty Wattenberg
Other Board members — Greg Higel and Doug Monger
Staff present — Mike Brod and Dan Law
Topic — Discussion of the Long Hollow Reservoir Proposal submitted by the La Plata Water Conservancy
District
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Committee(s) Chair Ann Nichols. Ms. Nichols indicated
the reason for the meeting and asked Mr. Law to address the proposal.
Mr. Law went over the attached summary that addressed the project's background, the reservoir
proposal and the issues of concern. The issues of concern are: final ownership of the dam and
reservoir, the amount of water allocated to meeting the La Plata River Compact and the approach to
selecting an engineering firm for further engineering work.
Comments on issues —
Ownership — Concern was expressed that the District may not have sufficient financial capability to
support the reservoir. In addition, since the reservoir's main benefit will be to meet the Compact, it was
felt that the Colorado Water Conservation Board may be the appropriate owner of the reservoir.
Operating costs and the proposal to cover those costs were also discussed.
Compact allocation — As proposed, the reservoir would only meet the Compact delivery requirements 85
percent of the time. Since the Authority is being asked to fund the entire estimated $17 million project
cost, the Committee members discussed a possible requirement that the project meet the Compact
obligation 100 percent of the time. How much more water is required to meet this requirement?
Should the Board hire an independent engineer to review the hydrologic modeling work to determine
the release requirements?
Design Engineer Selection — It was agreed that the design engineer's first task should be to review the
existing feasibility report, review the existing design, suggest changes and develop a new cost estimate
for the project. This step must be done first to determine whether sufficient funds are available to
complete the project prior to initiating final design.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Attachment