BOARD00946

• Board Meeting Date: 3/22/2005
• Description: CF Section - General Matters Review Colorado Water Resource & Power Development Authority Memorandum of Understanding
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

~

"

.::>~

~t;'J ~r>IER RE~
~ ,~~~ -~-~
r~-- -m --fJ!'
~-- - -
1m .
~~-~
~~PMEN\~

COLORADO WATER RESOURCES &
POWER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
Logan Tower Bldg. - Suite 620,1580 Logan Street, Denver, Colorado 80203-1942
303/830-1550 . Fax [phone] . [e-mail]

.

\.'

.

.

December 21,2004

Mr. Keith Catlin, Chairman
Colorado Water Conservation Board
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, CO 80203

Re: CWCB-Authority MOU Dated December 1997

Dear Keith:

You may recall that in June 2002, Tom Sharp, then-Chair of the Colorado Water Resources and
Power Development Authority ("Authority"), requested the Colorado Water Conservation Board
("CWCB") to review the December 1997 Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") between the
Authority and the CWCB and determine if it agreed with the Authority Board that the MOU
should be terminated by mutual consent. In July 2002, theCWCB indicated its view that the
MOU should not be terminated and directed the CWCB Director to commence negotiations with
the Authority's Director to make appropriate revisions to the MOU.

In October 2002, the Authority acceded to the CWCB request that the MOU not be terminated,.
and requested that the CWCB provide its proposals on how the MOU should be revised. . Mr.
Sharp's letter of October 2002 to Mr. Schwindt explains the Authority's position. Since that
time, however, no revision to the MOU has been negotiated or executed.

Recently, the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District ("Central") filed a loan application
with the CWCB. Despite the fact that under the MOU this application should have been
transmitted to the Authority for determination of whether Authority bonding could be used to
fund a loan to Central, the application was not forwarded to the Authority and the CWCB has
now approved use of State funds (from the Construction Fund) to fund a loan to Central.

In view of this development, the Authority Board is renewing its request for discussion between
our two Boards of the need for revision or termination of the MOU. The fact that the procedures
called for in the MOU were not followed in the consideration of the Centra110an application
would seem to reinforce the need either to terminate the MOU or to modify it so that it meets the
needs and reflects the actual practices of the parties. As you know, Authority and CWCB staff