Memorandum Agenda Item 12a 11/20/1998

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• MEMORANDUM TO: Colorado Water Conservation Board Members FROM: Peter Evans Acting Director DATE: November 20, 1998 RE: Agenda Item 12a, November 23-34, 1998 Board Meeting-- Construction Fund Loan Program—Statutory Purposes of the CWCB Construction Fund One of the major items in our strategy for responding to the September 1998 • performance audit of the Construction Fund Loan Program is a review of the statutory purposes. This element of this strategy is responsive to at least two of the recommendations: Recommendation 2 indicates, in part,that the Board should work with the General Assembly to make a statutory change as needed to put more of the cash balance to work out in the community; recommendation 4 suggests that the Board should consider expanding the statutory funding priorities to more clearly provide authorization for any future projects the Board anticipates (e.g.,the purchase of water rights,the purchase of federal reservoirs)that may not fall as obviously into the existing statutory priorities (see attached copy of C.R.S. Sections 119 and 121). Based upon a discussion with our Sr. Staff, I have identified the following potential categories of a activity that seem to provide comprehensive inclusion of all the sorts of projects we have funded or undertaken in recent years. • Increase beneficial consumptive use of waters in Colorado (including storage and delivery facilities, well field development, etc.); • Rehabilitation of existing water supply infrastructure in Colorado (including facilities under restriction by the State Engineer for safety purposes); • Acquisition of existing infrastructure or water rights; • Flood protection projects (limit to 5% of income? 10%? 5% unless there are more funds than water supply projects can use and worthy flood protection • projects would be unnecessarily delayed?);