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.. I, throughout the west with US Department of Interior funding. There has been no new action on the legislation in the last 2 months. Staff continues to work with the Coalition on implementing inventory efforts utilizing the $50,000 of cost share funds provided by the Board. Inventories will be conducted this year on the Purgatoire, Yampa, and Colorado mainstem this summer. We have met with the Arkansas River Conservancy District, which maintains the levee structure at the City of Las Animas, and they will be pursuing a US Army Corps of Engineers study of an environmental restoration on the Arkansas in the reach protected by the levee focusing on tamarisk removal. There may be a further role for the Board under our flood mitigation responsibilities. A similar Corps project is being pursued by the City of Grand Junction in Mesa County in cooperation with the Tamarisk Coalition. Staff also provided a letter of support to the group on the Purgatoire who are applying for funding of a tamarisk control project through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Finally, staffwil1 be seeking additional discussions with EDO on coordination and definition of respective DNR agency roles in the Statewide tamarisk control effort as presented in the DNR 10 Year Plan. . Arkansas River Basin Kansas v. Colorado: Litigation Schedule: On April 19, 2005 Special Master Littleworth issued an Order setting forth his schedule and expectations for resolving the remaining technical disputes in the case_ Basically all technical matters must be resolved through discussion of each state's experts or be submitted to arbitration by September 12, 2005. Arbitration procedures are to be established by the States, and if agreement can't be reached by September 12, the Master will . decide. The States must also resolve any disagreements about Colorado's well measurement rules based on the newly released USGS Phase 2 Study (pCC Study) or submit that issue to the Master. The Master also instructed Kansas to prepare a proposed final decree, addressing matters set forth by the Master, including HI model documentation, for review and comment by Colorado, his stated goal being entry of a decree prior to the end of 2005. Morithly progress reports to the Master are required; . 0 Payment of Judgment: On April 28, the legislature passed and Governor Owens signed SB05-226, which provides funds to make payments required by the Supreme Court under the decision in Kansas v. Colorado. The bill authorizes payments to Kansas for damages and establishes a structure for the payment of potential legal costs as follows: . Creates the Kansas v. Colorado Plaintiffs Damages Payment Fund . Authorizes the State Treasurer to transfer the following amounts into a Damages Payment Fund: (1) $15,500,000 from the Severance Tax Operational Account; (2) $15,500,000 from the Severance Tax Perpetual Base Account; and (3) $3,796,129 from the Local Govemment Severance Tax Fund, a total of$34,976,129. . Authorizes the Department of Law to expend from the Damages Payment Fund and appropriates $34,796,129 to the Department of Law. . Immediately after SB05-226 was signed the total funds were transferred to Kansas to satisfy the damages portion of the Court's decision, prior to entry of a final judgment, thereby preventing the accumulation of further interest on the damages award. - . . Creates the Kansas v. Colorado Plaintiffs Legal Costs Fund, to pay litigation costs (not attorney fees) to Kansas as may be negotiated by the states or subsequently ordered by the Court. . 18