BOARD00220

• Board Meeting Date: 9/22/2003
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

EDA W's will receive $50,000 to inventory recreation am~nities and put a dollar value to the inundation,
replacement and/or relocation of State Parks' facilities based on a storage increase of 20,600 AF and a 12-
....... ...mmmmm "" . """" IT- foot rise. The second objective is
.',j""".,.-i two create a minimum of at least two
design alternatives (a partial Park
Master Plan) to aide in decision-
making and determine the costs and
benefits of each facility.

The morning field tour included
~ representatives from the Corps,
Tetra Tech, CWCB, State Parks, the
Audubon Society, the Sierra Club,
State Representative Ted Harvey and
water users.

Kent Wiley led the tour, Operations
Manager at Chatfield, who shed light
on the potential impacts and
concerns State Parks has about increasing the storage capacity of the reservoir. Their main concerns are
about impacts to the marina, inundation of the swim beach, and the loss of a boat launching facility close
to the dam.

Chatfield reservoir is a flood control reservoir and inundations will occur. This is illustrated in the bottom
right picture of the collage. A Corps employee stands at t1),e base of a building at the swim beach area.
This building is also in the picture to the left from the sho~eline. The brown plaque at the top of that
building marks the high water level from storing floodwat~rs at Chatfield in 1995.

In the meantime, several recent developments demonstrate support for the reallocation of storage space:
(1) the main contractor responsibilities were reassigned to 'Tetra Tech;

(2) House Resolution 03-1014 supporting the study;

(3) State Parks working with the CWCB to reach a consen~us on the Recreation Mitigation Study;
;
(4) the Corps assuming hydrologic and hydraulic modelin~ responsibilities; and,

(5) water users are meeting to work through the details ofieallocation sponsorship.

Larry Lang and the Corps are concerned with these advanqed water user meetings because water user
conflicts led to an inability to reach consensus during a similar Bear Creek Reservoir Reallocation Study
- and that study only involved the reallocation of 400 AF tather than the 20,600 AF being examined here.
i
Copies ofthe minutes from the kick off meeting and futur~ meetings will be posted on the CWCB
Chatfield Project website at htto://cwcb.state.co.uslflood WatchlChatfieldWeb%20-%20current/index.htrn

South Platte Forum: The 14th Annual South Platte Forum' will be held on Oct 22-23 at the Raintree Plaza
in Longrnont. The theme of this year's forum is "Planning :For Uncertainty." I have been invited to speak
at this year's forum. For more information visit htto://southplatte.iibrown.com.

Rio Grande B!tsin
,
United States Petition to Tenth Circuit: The United Stat~s has filed a petition asking the Tenth Circuit
Court of Appeals to re-hear or re-hear en banc the case of Silvery Minnow v. Keys. In that case, the Tenth
Circuit held in June 2003 that the Bureau of Reclamation lias broad authority to use water from the
Middle Rio Grande Project and the San Juan-Chama Project to protect the Rio Grande silvery minnow, a
species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. According to the court, this authority

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