BOARD01185

• Board Meeting Date: 3/16/2004
• Description: WSP Section - Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Update and Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

STATE OF COLORADO

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Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.cQ.us

Bill Owens
Governor

Russell George
Executive Director

MEMORANDUM

Rod Kuharich
eweB Director

To:

Dan McAuliffe
Colorado Water Conservation Board Deputy Director

Rick Brown, Project Manager, Interstate Stream protect~

March 3, 2004

From:

Date:

Subject:

Agenda Item 20, March 16-17, 2004 Board MeetiDg, Platte. River Recover
ImplemeDtation Program Update aDd Draft EnvironmeDtal Impact Statement

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I. IntroductioD

In 1997 the Governors of the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming signed an agreement with
the Department of Interior to improve and/or study the habitat offour endangered species in the
Central Platte River in Nebraska. This Cooperative Agreement was extended through December 31,
2003 to allow additional time to formulate a proposed program and complete National
Environmental Policy Act (NEP A) activities. The proposed program has three components: water,
land, and monitoring and research

II. Status of Cooperative Agreement Activities

In December 2003 the signatories to the Cooperative AgreemenL(CA}..agreed.toJi.u:ther extend the
CA to June 2005, and if needed, a provisional six-month extension at the discretion of the Platte
River Governance Committee. This extension was needed to compete NEP A activities including
Endangered Species Act compliance via a Programatic Biological Opinion of the proposed program.

A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (ElS) that describes and analyzes the proposed program
and a range of alternatives to the proposed program was released in December 2003. Following the
release ofthe EIS it was learned that the National Academy of Science review of the science
associated with the four endangered species would not be complete until at least March 2004.
Consequently, it appears that the comment period for the EIS will be extended to at least June 2,
2004 to accommodate this delay.

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Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning