BOARD01101

• Board Meeting Date: 7/23/2001
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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states and are managed by six federal agencies. The pilot projects are expected to last from one to four
years, Lessons learned from these 31 pilot projects wiIJ help guide recreation lake management
nationwide.

The Federal Lakes Recreation Demonstration Program was undertaken in response to recommendations
made by the National Recreation Lakes Study Commission established by Congress and appointed by
the President in 1998. Within Colorado, Granby, Shadow Mountain and Willow Creek Reservoir were
included in the demonstration.

U.S. Forest Service, Water Division 2 Reserved Rights Update: A meeting anlong the objector was
held on July 6 to discuss the technical report, The group felt that nothing appeared to have changed
since the technical report was released. Another meeting with Judge Tracy and the negotiating group
appears to be in order but can not occur until the relevant positions within the administration are filled
and brought up to speed, Efforts continue to set a trial date and delay discovery pending negotiations,

Bypass Flows: The House Resources Subcommittee on Forests held a hearing on May 22 on the US,
Forest Service's use of "bypass flow" requirements in permits, In a May 4 letter Western senators asked
the Bush Administration to reverse a Clinton Administration policy that embraced the use of bypass
flow requirements as conditions in permits for existing water facilities,

Rep. Scott McInnis, said, "I believe that the Forest Service's coercive practice of tying bypass flow
restrictions to land use authorizations for existing water facilities represents the single largest threat to
water users in Colorado and indeed throughout the West. In my mind, the policy looks an awful lot like
federal blackmaiL"

Senator Wayne Allard testified, "Many westerners believe that Colorado and the states, not Washington,
should establish state water policy. We know that Colorado already has an effective in-stream flow
program in place to protect Colorado rivers from future development. We believe that ifthe Forest
Service wants to increase flows in rivers that cross National Forests, it should work with Colorado's and
other states' in-stream programs and/or purchase additional water rights consistent with western water
law.... "

He continued, "At the federal level, bypass flow arguments became so heated that in 1992 then
Secretary of Agriculture Ed Madigan issued a departmental directive codifying historical Forest Service
policy against imposing bypass flows. This directive was secretly repealed in the fall of 1993 without
public or congressional inpuL.[and] was not announced until nearly a year later by sheepish Forest
Service personnel.... This issue is of great importance to the West, as bypass flow requirements are used
to take water that is owned by cities and fanners without compensation, notwithstanding the fact that the
Task Force found that Congress has not delegated this authority to the Forest Service,"

Forest Service Deputy Chief, Randy Phillips, stated that the Forest Service is currently involved in
litigation over the use of bypass flows (Trout Unlimited v. USDA, Opening and response briefs. were
filed in U.S. District Court and reply briefs were due by June 15), He noted that the agency is reviewing
the policy established by Secretary Madigan in an October 6, 1992 letter and will consider the benefits
and costs of a change from current policy, He added that the Forest Service's 1980 water policy manual
states, "The Forest Service in all matters related to water use and water rights, will endeavor to work
cooperatively with the States. Such cooperation wiIJ recognize the State's authority and responsibilities
for allocation of waters within the State, and the need for the State to be informed as to uses and future
needs of water on the National Forests,"

Kent Holsinger, Assistant DNR Director testified that, "[T]he US. Forest Service must abandon the ill-
founded, and we believe, illegal, practice of imposing bypass flows on water providers..,[and] work
within the bounds of state water laws and pursue any federal claims to water in state adjudications....
The Forest Service must attain the secondary purposes ofthe National Forests by obtaining and

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