WATFSummaryApril2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

TO: Members of the State Drought/Water Availability Task Force FROM: Brad Lundahl, Water AvailabilityTask Force Chair DATE: April 26, 2002 SUBJECT: Minutes of the Wednesday, April 24, 2002, Drought Task Force Meeting The meeting was held on Wednesday, April 24, 2002, at Camp George West, Golden, Colorado. The following is a summAry of the meeting and current conditions. Approximately sixty people attended this emergency drought meeting. Brad Lundahl from the Dept. of Natural Resources was named the new chair of the Water Availability Task Force (Drought Task Force). Snow pack has gone from bad to worse in April. The Governor and media have shown increased concern, most of which has grown considerably in the past few weeks. Adding to the drought concern is the early fire season problem. We will receive a sense from this meeting as to how bad it really is and what can be done and also discuss the activation of a safe drought plan. There were a lot of new people attended the meeting. The drought plan is rooted from back in the seventies. Colorado is one ofthe few states that actually has a drought plan. Much thanks was expressed to the Office of Energy Management for this plan. This is a great plan and has been updated. We are at the point now where we need to get past the planning mode and into the implementation mode. This plan is now handed to the Dept of Natural Resources whose staff will continue to operate under the leadership of Greg Walcher. JeffBrislawn was handed a plaque and acknowledged for his work for the Drought Task force in the past three years including the complete rewrite of the plan. In the year 2000, connunities were surveyed for their drought plan status; in 2001 the drought plan was updated, and now in 2002 the DNR is doing a job of assessment to look at storage facilities and capacity and the ability of the connunities to respond to drought and look at the carry over capacity as well and their ability to manage drought in the long run. Greg Walcher's connents ofthe Governor's press conference vesterdav. We have asked Brad Lundahl to be the leader of this task force because he is the Director of the Office of Water Conservation of the Water Conservation Board. That organization is going to have a huge role play to make sure that Colorado never gets to this point again and how to respond to it now that we are here. It is a collaborative effort that involves a lot of different agencies as was represented in the room. Involvement of all agencies is needed for this enormously important task. There are a lot of federal agencies whose involvement is crucial in helping us to where we need to be. With the extreme danger of the fires, people need to use water in our state. Weare 80% of the way there with the work that has been done. The task now s to implement the plan, as the Governor said. Moisture statewide is at a 25 year low and some parts of Colorado are at a 100 year low. This is a drought of historic proportions.