BOARD00126

• Board Meeting Date: 3/16/2004
• Description: WSP Section - Request for Expenditure from Litigation Fund for Kansas v. Colorado Costs
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
wvvw.cwcb.state.co. us

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Bill Owens
Governor

MEMORANDUM

Russell George
Executive Director

To:

From:

Colorado Water Conservation ~O\d Members

Steve Miller ~
Randy Seaholm

Rod Kuharich
eWeB Director

Date:

March 3, 2004

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Re: Agenda Item 11, March 16-17,2004, CWCB Meeting. Request for Expenditure from Litigation
Fund for Kansas v, Colorado Costs

Introduction

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The Attorney General has requested an expenditure of up to $750,000 over the next three years from the Litigation
Fund in the Construction Fund for use in defending Colorado's interests in the ongoing case of Kansas v,
Colorado, The litigation fund is established by Section 37-60-121(2,5) C,R.S" the text of which is attached, The
Attorney General's letter of request is attached, The State Engineer has provided a detailed description and cost
estimate of the litigation related activities to be funded if the Board approves the Attorney General's request, it is
also attached, The purpose of this agenda item is to obtain the Board's authorization to use the litigation fund for
the purposes stated in the letter,

Discussion

The litigation fund within the construction fund contains $3 million for the purpose of litigating four specific types of
federal issues that might impact existing or future Colorado water users, One of those issues is: "to defend and
protect Colorado's allocations of water in interstate streams and rivers", the basis for the AG's request. To date
the Board has never authorized any expenditures from the fund, The statute sets out a required procedure for
accessing the funds: "the Colorado attorney general requests that the board authorize the expenditure of moneys
in a specified amount not to exceed the baiance of the fund for the costs of iitigation associated with one or more
specifically identified lawsuits", Funds will be available to begin this work as soon as the Board authorizes use of
the litigation fund for the identified purpose; no additional legislative approval is required, However, the Board and
AG will have an ongoing obligation to report annually to the General Assembly on use of these funds,

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The four general areas containing tasks which are required to implement or support the findings of the Special
Master that require funding are:
I. Design, installation, and operation of weighing Iysimeters at the Colorado State University Agricultural
Experiment Station at Rocky Ford, Colorado, ($300,000)
II. Enhancement of the CoAgMet Electronic Weather Station Network in the Lower Arkansas River Basin,
($130,000)
III. Monitoring of irrigation amount, timing and crop yield in the Lower Arkansas River Basin, ($220,000)
IV, Review of the H-I Model, after changes have been made by the State Engineer's Office, by Hydrosphere
Resource Consultants and Helton & Williamsen, ($100,000)