BOARD01275

• Board Meeting Date: 9/22/2003
• Description: ISF Section - Request for Approval of Policy Regarding RICDs
• 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.ca.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

To: CWCB Members
From: Tom Browning, Ted Kowalski
Date:

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Re:

September 10,2003

Agenda Item 14, September 22-23, 2003 Board Meeting-
Flood Protection Section and Stream and Lake Protection Section - Request for
Approval of Policy regarding RIeDs;

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Background
The Board has received three RICD applications, and held hearings on two of these three RICD
applications. The Staff is aware of at least seven other communities that are developing whitewater
parks or considering filing for an RICD for existing whitewater parks. At the July Board meeting, in
anticipation of the many RICD applications that the Board may consider in the near future, the Staff
presented the Board with a draft policy regarding RICDs that reflected some general guidelines to
serve the Board in an advisory manner to explain the terms of Senate Bill 216 and to describe the
factors that the Board will consider in future RlCD hearings without binding the Board to any
particular result. The Recreational In-Channel Diversion Policy was developed with the assistance
of experts in the design, construction, and evaluation of whitewater parks. At the July Board
meeting, the Board directed the Staff to: I) make certain changes to the proposed policy; 2) post the
amended policy on the website; and, 3) hold a special telephonic meeting on September 2, 2003. At
the special telephonic meeting, the Board provided additional comments to the Staff and received
additional comments from the interested public. The Staff has made the appropriate changes to the
proposed policy, which is attached. The Staff has marked in bold the annotations suggested by the
interested public.

At the special telephonic meeting, some Board members suggested that the Board consider adopting
the policy as rules, after going through a formal rule-making process. If the Board were to pursue
adopting this policy as a formal rule, the Board could publish a formal notice for rule-making in the
November 10, 2003 Colorado Register, hold a public hearing in early December, publish the fmal
rules in early January, make the rules effective as of January 30, 2004; however, this schedule may
not provide significant opportunities for public comment.

Staff Recommendation
The Staff recommends that the Board adopt the attached Recreational In-Channel Diversion Policy
regarding technical criteria.

Colorado Water Conservation Board
Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought/"'-,-~:",,,,,