BOARD01267

• Board Meeting Date: 11/16/2004
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

.

.

.

B. National Perspective on Re!!ional Watershed Restoration Pro!!rams

The CWCB staff is working with statewide groups to investigate existing regional initiatives for
federal funding. A list of issues has been developed, in an attempt to provide the Board with sufficient
background information about these efforts in other geographic regions of the country:
. What was the legislative history of the creation of these regional initiatives?
. How much funding has historically been provided and what are the cost-sharing arrangements
among the various partners for these initiatives?
. What is the nature of signed agreements among the participating states (and other parties) in
these regional initiatives and how are the states and the regional entities that implement these
initiatives governed within the context of the initiatives? (i. e. what is in the charters or other
documents enabling the initiatives, who controls and who protects state water rights)
. What impact would comparative population (i.e. Congressional influence) and scarcity vs.
availability of water (i.e. arid West vs. humid East or Midwest) have in making these other
states suitable models for a regional initiative in the Rocky Mountains, where population is
small and water is scarce?

The staff recognizes:
. The importance of broad-based watershed stakeholder groups;
. The fact that the most appropriate solutions will come from locally support projects; and
. The need for a federally funded regional initiative.

In addition to the information on existing regional initiatives in other parts of the country that was
discussed in September (i.e. Great Lakes states, Chesapeake Bay states), staff has gathered
information regarding proposed federal drought legislation that might be relevant to the Rocky
Mountain Headwaters Initiative. The National Drought Preparedness Act of2003, S. 1454, was
introduced by Senator Domenici of New Mexico on 7/24/03. The proposed legislation was
cosponsored by:
. both current Senators from Colorado,
. both Senators from Montana,
. both Senators from Kansas,
. both Senators from Nebraska,
. both Senators from Oregon,
. both Senators from Virginia,
. the other Senator from New Mexico,
. Senators from Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada, and Maine.

S. 1454 would establish within the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture the National Drought
Council to develop a National Drought Policy Action Plan. It would establish the Drought Assistance
Fund for funding drought preparedness plans and drought mitigation. As drafted, the legislation
would not affect "the authority of a State to allocate quantities of water under the jurisdiction of the
State; or 2) any State water rights established as of the date of enactment of this Act." With
appropriate amendments, this proposed act could serve as a possible implementation vehicle for the
Rocky Mountain Headwaters Initiative.

The Rocky Mountain News recently wrote a story about our activities and it is attached.

9