BOARD01318

• Board Meeting Date: 9/13/2005
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Statewide

Headwaters Magazine Highlights River Restoration Projects: The Summer 2005 issue of Headwaters
magazine, the quarterly publication of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, includes three
articles about river restoration projects in Colorado. The first of the three featured restoration projects is
in the Little Snake River watershed north of Steamboat Springs. The second project is in the
northeastern quadrant ofthe Denver metropolitan area, in the Sand Creek watershed. The third project is
in the North Fork of the Gunnison River watershed in the Paonia-Hotchkiss portion of western Colorado.
Over the past 5 or 6 years CWCB has provided funding for several restoration features on the North Fork
of the Gunnison.

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The articles provide very helpful insights into the planning and construction work involved in developing
and completing a river restoration project and insight into why people pursue river restoration in the first
place. Perhaps Executive Director and magazine editor Karla Brown said it best in her foreword for this
issue of Headwaters, "In the coming decades, as we figure out how to store more water, conserve and
become more efficient. a well-maintained river seems as good a business practice as a tidy shop or well-
manicured yard. If you want to keep it workingforyou, you have to maintain it."

Water Quality-Water Quantity Coordination Meeting. The meeting was held on August 29, 2005.
The following issues were discussed:
Colorado Watershed Protection Fund (see item below)
Concern Expressed regarding Delta golf course ground water contamination
Results of the WQCC Basic Standards rulemaking hearing
EP A memo regarding water transfers and discharge permits (see item below)
Legislative update
Agency updates

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Colorado Watershed Protection Fund - applications for 2004 tax checkoff. The CWCB received a
total of eleven applications (6 project grants and 5 planning grants) by the April 30, 2005 deadline.
Copies of these applications were sent to the WQCD and Colorado Watershed Assembly (CW A). Staff at
the CWCB and WQCD and the CW A representatives reviewed and scored these applications according to
the Program Guidance approved by the CWCB and WQCC designees. On August 3,2005, staffs of the
CWCB and WQCD, as well as the CW A representatives, met and developed a joint recommendation to
the CWCB and WQCC designees. It is estimated that approximately $90,000 will be available from the
2004 tax year donations. After the assessed fee has been paid to the Colorado Department of Revenue
(approximately $1,500) and the operating expenses of the CWCB have been met ($13,500), it is estimated
that $75,000 will be available for this year's grants. Based on this budgetary estimate, the CWCB and
WQCC designees are scheduled to meet on September 16 to make funding and allocation decisions for
the 2004-tax checkoff applications.

EPA Memo Regarding Water Transfers and Discharge Permits. The EPA has issued a lengthy
memorandum concerning the Agency's interpretation on applicability of Section 402 of the Clean Water
Act (CW A) to water transfers in connection with the recent Supreme Court decision in the South Florida
Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. The EPA attempts to address the question
of weather the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under Section 402 of
the CW A is required for water transfers such as trans-basin transfers of water to serve municipal,
agricultural, and commercial needs.

The South Florida V. Miccosukee case touches the delicate balance created in the statute between
protection of water quality to meet federal water quality goals and the management of water quantity left .

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