BOARD00936

• Board Meeting Date: 1/25/2005
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

. Environment and Public Works - Inhofe, Chair, and Jim Jeffords (D-VT), with Murkowski, John
Thune (R-SD), Baucus, and Boxer.

. Finance - Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chair, and Baucus, with Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jon Kyl (R-AZ),
Thomas, Smith, Crapo, Kent Conrad, Bingaman, and Wyden.

Desalination and Water Augmentation Technology: During a speech at the National Salinity
Management and Desalination Summit in Las Vegas in December 2004, U.S. Sen. Pete Dornenici called
for the creation ofa National Water Supply Council to coordinate federal and state, public and private,
efforts and "reinvigorate" the investment in water augmentation technology. He announced he would seek
$200 million to create a new program utilizing the Department of Energy and its national laboratories. He
declared that conservation, storage and transfers are all finite and that only advanced water treatment
provides hope for the long term.

New EPA Officials: On Nov. 192004, the Senate confirmed four EPA appointees: Stephen Johnson,
Deputy Administrator; Ann Klee, General Counsel; Charles Johnson, Chief Financial Officer; and
Benjamin Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water.

Stephen Johnson has more than 20 years ofEPA service, including over two years as Assistant
Administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

Klee was counselor to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and has served as Chief Counsel to the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee, Counsel to the Senate Sub-committee on Drinking Water,
Fisheries and Wildlife, and as a partner in the law firm of Preston, Gates & Ellis.

Prior to joining EP A, Charles Johnson was president of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and was Chief
of Staff to Utah Governor Michael o. Leavitt from 1992 to 1997.

Grumbles was Deputy Assistant Administrator of Water and acting Associate Administrator for
Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. He also worked as Deputy Chief of Staff for the House
Science Committee.

Dam Safety Bill Signed: President Bush has signed S. 1727, which increases the authorized spending
ceiling on the Federal Safety of Dams Program by $540 million (See P.L. 108-439).

More New Forest Rules: On Jan. 5 the U.S. Forest Service issued new rules designed to further
streamline the forest-plan revision process. Forest Plans typically govern forest activities for IS-year
periods but sometimes take 10 years to complete.

The new rules would set out the "future desired condition" of a forest but not specify actual projects or
management prescriptions. The rules also encourage forest decision-makers to more thoroughly consider
the "social and economic needs" oflocal communities.

The rules will create a new "categorical exclusion" exempting forest plans from requirements of the
National Environmental Policy Act.

Under the new rules, individual supervisors at those forests would give plans final approval. Currently,
Rocky Mountain regional forester Rick Cables has that responsibility. Six of the state's 11 national forests
have already completed Forest Plan Revisions.

See 70 Fed. Reg. 1022, January 5, 2005 for more information and to review a copy of the new rule.

Drought Expanding Grip On Planet: On Jan. 11 researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric .
Research in Boulder announced that the percentage of the Earth's surface plagued by serious drought has
more than doubled since the 1970s. Ten to 15 percent ofthe planet's land surface suffered from drought in
the early 1970s. By 2002, the fraction was about 30 percent. The scientists believe that half of that change

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