BOARD01265

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2002
• Description: Future Water Storage, Delivery, Mitigation and Incentives
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

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

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE:

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members
Rod Kuharich
March 13, 2002
Agenda Item #2'1- Future Water Storage, Delivery, Mitigation and
Incentives

Rod Kuharich
eWeB Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

In January, CWCB member Greg Hoskin identified the possibility of building a new water project near the
state line on the Colorado River.

In February, I attended a meeting of the Colorado Forum. One of the major issues facing the Forum is how to
ensure adequate water for future growth and environmental protection. The Forum is aware of several
specific water proj ects that could be developed in the next decade to provide water - if the associated issues
of mitigating basin-of-origin and environmental impacts are addressed.

In order to build the necessary base of support for new projects, incentives and mitigation must accompany
any project proposals. The day and age of simply promising 'jobs" associated with construction has come
and gone. Project proponents must now ensure that multiple benefits accompany new water projects- so the
resulting development pays its own way and actually benefit already strapped local economies and budgets.

We have several resources at our disposal to help determine where new water projects could be built. We
have a dam site inventory, we have lists of conditional water rights, we know where growth is occurring, we
know where water is available and we are learning about entities with specific project proposals that could be
"scoped" by the Board to determine whether it is wise to make further investments to determine their
financial and engineering feasibility.

An example of the entities with project proposals they would like to discuss with us include:

. The Colorado Forum - which is discussing a Colorado River pump-back project;
· The El Paso Water County Water Authority -- which is discussing several Arkansas River water
proj ects;
· The South metro Water Providers - which is discussing Gwmison River and Green Mountain pump-back
projects; and,
· Other projects that are being considered that we do not know of.

Representatives from these entities will attend our meeting to discuss their ideas and to begin a discussion
with you about how and whether to proceed with securing funding to conduct reconnaissance studies of these
ideas- either by applying for a non-reimbursable investment by Aug. 31, 2002; or by applying for a
Severance Tax Trust Fund Operational Account grant by Jan. 31,2003. You may also decide that you should
consider sponsoring such studies because as a Board you collectively represent every basin and every citizen
in the state. Large new projects may not be able to every be built without such statewide support.