BOARD01004

• Board Meeting Date: 9/24/2001
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to fue Colorado Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
. for inclusion in this year's funding request for state activities related to the National Flood Insurance Program,
flood hazard mitigation and emergency management.

The CAP enables the CWCB to provide technical assistance to Colorado's NFIP communities in order to
promote floodplain management practices consistent with the intent of the National Flood Insurance Program.
CWCB staff have and will continue to work with NFIP communities to 1) identify and resolve floodplain
management issues before they result in an enforcement action by FEMA, 2) reduce the potential losses from
flood hazards based on obj ective benclunarks established by the State, and 3) incorporate new and innovative
objectives to reduce future flood damages.

Under the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program, flood mitigation plans and projects will be developed
by local govemments through a pass-through funding agreement with the CWCB. These activities will serve to
reduce future flood losses in Colorado and create disaster resistant communities.

Water Quality Consultations: The inter-agency water quality/water quantity group met on August 22nd.
Among the issues discussed were continued coordination, Sections 404/401 permit evaluation, the Water
Quality Control Commission's (WQCC) November meeting in Lamar, and recreational stream
classifications.

With regard to coordination and information sharing, the group agreed that the recent briefings to the CWCB
by WQCC Administrator Paul Frohardt, and CWCB staff member Brian Hyde's presentation before fue
WQCC received positive feedback and this type of networking will continue in the future.

Water quality officials also highlighted an upcoming presentation by David Robbins on October 9th, when he
will brief the WQCC about Arkansas River Compact issues including the creation of a TMDL in Kansas. In
. addition, the WQCC is meeting in November in Lamar to discuss the Kansas TMDL for the Arkansas River.
Robbins is expected to tell the Commission about fue conflict between water quantity and water quality as it
relates to compact compliance. David Holm will also brief the WQCC about Colorado's stream standards
and classification and someone from Kansas will present the State of Kansas' standards and the Arkansas
River TMDLs.

The group also discussed fue concerns of water users in the Uncompahgre River Basin about changes in
stream classifications, specifically changes from Recreational Class 2 to Class I, and how they could impact
the exercise of water rights. (Ree. Class I includes streams where primary contact or ingestion of small
quantities of water is likely to occur; fue Rec. Class 2 are waters that are not suitable for primary contact
recreational activities.) It was decided that the we would seek input from our members before responding to
future WQCC's consultation requests.

The WQCC's recently adopted triennial review process and schedule for water quality standards reviews will
also help us identify water users' concerns prior to future rulemaking hearings. The new procedure is a three-
step process. During the first year, an Issues Scoping Informational Hearing will be held. buring fue second
year, an Issues Formulation Hearing will be held, followed by the actual Rulemaking Hearing in the third
year. For example, under the new process, the WQCC will conduct Issues Formulation Hearing for the
Arkansas River and Rio Grande Basins in the November 2001 Meeting, and will have the rulemaking
hearing in July 2002.

Finally, the WQIWQ group acknowledged fue success oflast February's Multi-Agency Joint Workshop and
decided to hold a joint workshop once every three years. The next joint workshop will be in 2004.

The next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, November 28, 2001 from 1 :30 to 3:30 in the 8th Floor
Conference Room (Room 814) in the Centennial Building.

Colorado Water Congress Upcoming Seminars: The following seminars will be held in the Colorado
Water Congress Conference Room, 1580 Logan Street, Suite 400, Denver, Colorado:

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