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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ATTQllNEY GENERAL OF COLORADO
Ken Salazar

March 4, 2004

Colorado Water Conservation Board
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, CO 80203

RE: Request for Expenditure from Litigation Fund

Dear Board Members:

By this letter, I am requesting the expenditure of $750,000 over the next three
fiscal years (remainder of FY04, FY05-07) from the Board's Litigation Fund to pay for
additional activities to implement the findings in the Fourth Report (October 2003) of
Special Master Arthur Littleworth, The Master was appointed by the U.S, Supreme Court
to oversee and make recommendations on the resolution ofthe Kansas v, Colorado
litigation concerning Colorado's violation of the Arkansas River Compact, including
future compliance issues pursuant to the Court's retained jurisdiction, Section 37-60-
121(2,5) authorizes the Board to expend money from this fund at the request of the
Attorney General for, among other things, litigation to defend and protect Colorado's
allocations of water in interstate streams and rivers, S 37-60-l2l(2,5)(a)(III), c.R.S,
(2003),

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In his Fourth Report, the Special Master (1) found that the new administrative
rules for wells implemented by the State Engineer brought Colorado into compliance
with the Arkansas River Compact for the period 1997-99; (2) found that totalizing flow
meiers are not required to be placed on Colorado wells to ensure compliance with the
Compact; (3) accepted Colorado's proposal on how to utilize the H-I Model in the future
in order to determine Compact compliance; and (4) accepted some ofthe changes
proposed by both states to the H-I Model. He also ordered that the Penman-Montieth
Method be used to determine crop irrigation requirements without any adjustment for
Colorado conditions such as water salinity and irrigation management practices, He did
acknowledge that Colorado could conduct additional studies to show that adjustments to
the crop coefficients are appropriate, Without adjustment for Colorado conditions, our
experts believe that depletions to state line flows could be overstated and could result in
Colorado being found to be in violation ofthe compact when in fact, it is not. The four
tasks required to implement or support the findings of the Special Master that require
funding are set forth below, It is my understanding that the State Engineer has provided
your staff with the same detailed project descriptions and cost estimates upon which I am
basing my request.

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State Services Building. 1525 Sherman Street-5th Floor' Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone [phone] . FAX [phone]