BOARD00040

• Board Meeting Date: 11/15/2005
• Description: CF Section - En-bloc and Referred Non-Reimbursable Investment Recommendations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

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Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: (303) 866,3441
FAX: (303) 866,4474
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE:

Russell George
Executive Director

Colorado Water Conservation Board - Finance Committee
Tom Browning, Chief - Flood Protection Program
November 3, 2005
Non-Reimbursable Investments
Colorado Watershed Restoration and Flood Mitigation Program

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Rick Brown
Acting Deputy Director

Introduction
This request is for the continued implementation of the CWCB watershed restoration and flood mitigation
program and the creation of a permanent revolving fund to maintain on-going program activities,
Watershed restoration and flood mitigation projects in Colorado provide multiple benefits to a variety of
interested parties and to end users of the watersheds and stream courses where these types of projects have
been carried out. Past efforts have indicated that successful completion of watershed-based planning
projects and engineering design projects must include a robust public process along with technical support
and funding from multiple stakeholders. The CWCB has been an active partner in this arena for many
years and has managed to do so on a limited budget. The CWCB has not had access to a regular and
reliable source of funding for this Program in past years, Instead, special allocations on an annual basis
from Severance Tax and Construction Fund investments have provided support for the Program, For the
last two years the Board supported a non-reimbursable investment of $75,000 and the General Assembly
approved it. Staff is now requesting a non-reimbursable investment of $150,000 to expand this Program for
its third year, For the third year a change is proposed in order to allow the CWCB to begin the assessment
of watershed restoration needs on a statewide basis, The program would, under this proposed change, fund
half of the cost ($75,000 out of$150,000) ofa basinwide watershed restoration needs assessment and needs
prioritization for each of Colorado's 8 major river basins, One or two such plans would be funded each of
the next 8 years until all eight basin plans had been completed,

Discussion
The Program objective is to provide planning and engineering services for stream restoration studies/projects
as well as matching dollars for partnering with federal agencies and local governments in the development of
Flood Mitigation studies/projects and to integrate the two objectives, Without the availability of investments
from the CWCB Construction Fund, there is not a reliable source of consistent funding for this program,
which has been very successful for recent projects in Colorado (Le, Roaring Fork multi-objective planning
study, Rio Grande headwaters restoration, Alamosa River watershed restoration, Fountain Creek watershed
study, and others), This fund can also work in harmony with the newly created Watershed Protection Fund
(State Tax checkoff item) and the CWCB Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Fund as appropriate. In addition,
CWCB funding can be a state match for leveraging federal and local funds. Recently CWCB staff has been
working jointly on such efforts with federal partners like the V,S, Army Corps of Engineers and the
Environmental Protection Agency, Studies and projects resulting from this program can have far reaching
benefits for water supply (e,g, SWSn, flood protection, enhancement of aesthetic and environmental quality,
recreation, and increased economic benefit.

Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning