BOARD00675

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2006
• Description: ISF Section - Instream Flow Subcommittee Recommendations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department ofNatoral Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver> Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

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MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

Russell George
Executive Director

To:

Instream Flow Subcommittee Members

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

From:

CWCB Instream Flow Subcommittee Members
Barbara Biggs, Keith Catlin, Eric Wilkinson, John Redifer, Don
Schwindt, Tom Sharp, Rod Kuharich, Harold Miskel

Rick Brown
Acting Deputy Director

Date:

March 21, 2006

Subject:

Basin-oriented approach for New ISF Appropriations

Background

At the January 2006 Board Meeting, the Subcommittee discussed a proposed basin-
oriented approach for considering ISF recommendations and directed staff to develop a set of
criteria for considering "exceptions" to the proposed rotation schedule or the new timeline. The
rotation schedule and criteria were discussed with Board members and the public at the February
ISF Workshop and finalized at the March 21, 2006 subcommittee meeting.

Basin Rotation

Recommending entities currently propose streams for appropriation based on their own
internal prioritization criteria. As a result, streams may be recommended in multiple water
divisions in any given year. This approach can introduce some inefficiency into the instream
flow appropriation process. Public involvement is critical to the appropriation process, but
under the current process staff is required to address concerns across multiple water divisions,
with multiple Board members, division engineers, water commissioners and other stakeholders_
In addition, there is no guarantee that once issues are addressed in a given water division, that the
recommending entities won't be back the following year recommending other streams in the
same or adjacent basins, which could involve the same stakeholders. To increase efficiency for
all involved parties, and provide some certainty to the stakeholders, the subcommittee requested
that staff develop a rotating basin-oriented approach to recommending new isntream flow
appropriations.

A rigid basin-by-basin rotation approach is not without problems. For example,
recommending entities such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may need to focus their

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