BOARD01052

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/1999
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - Unified Watershed Assessment - National Context
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
721 Centennial Building
1 31 3 Sherman Street
Denver. Colorado 80203
Phone: {3D]} 866-3441
FAX: [phone]

STATE OF COLOAADQ

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Bill Owens
Governor

MEMORANDUM

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director. DNR

TO:
FROM:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members
Randy Seaholm ~
Interstate Streams and Hydrologic Investigations Section
January 15,1999
Agenda Item 21, January 27-28, 1999 Board Meeting-
Colorado River Basin Issues - UNIFIED WATERSHED ASSESSMENT
NATIONAL CONTEXT

-- THE

Peter H. Evans
Acting Direcror. CWCS

DATE:
SUBJECT:

INTRODUCTION

In February 1998 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), along with a number of other federal agencies, released a document titled "Clean Water Action
Plan: Restoring and Protecting America's Waters." The plan's objective is to fulfill the original goal of
the Clean Water Act: fishable and swimmable waters for all Americans through watershed protection.

A key element of the Action Plan is a cooperative approach to restoring and protecting water quality in
which state, federal, tribal, and local governments work with stakeholders and interested citizens to:
1) identify watersheds not meeting clean water and other natural resource goals and
2) work cooperatively to focus resources and implement effective strategies to solve these
problems.
The Action Plan calls for state environmental agency leaders and USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service state conservationists to jointly convene the process and to involve a full range of
appropriate parties. Several principles guide the development of unified watershed assessment,
restoration priorities, and restoration action strategies:

. all components of a watershed related to aquatic systems are considered, including biological,
physical, and chemical characteristics;
. human health and ecosystems are protected from significant sources of water pollution, and
stewardshi'p of natural resources is enhanced;
. unified watershed assessments are good opportunities to encourage creativity and innovation in
assessing, watershed condition and threats;
. states, tribes and federal agencies work together to assure that completed assessments have core
comparable elements to promote comparable results regionally, and nationally;
. ongoing programs, current data and existing efforts and mechanisms are appropriate starting, points
for unified watershed assessments and priority setting;
. state environmentai agency leaders and USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
state conservationists jointly convene the process on non-tribal lands and work cooperatively with
federal. Interstate, and local agencies, conservation districts/land conservation departments,
watershed-based organizations and the public (tribal governments lead the process on tribal lands).

The watershed approach provides a framework for states and tribes to strategically focus fiscal and
professional resources on common priorities to gain the maximum water quality and natural resource
benefit for each dollar expended. Using the watershed approach, the diverse assessments conducted
by states, tribes, federal agencies and others can be brought together on a watershed basis.