BOARD01318

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

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USGS / DWR / CWCR Coordination Meeting: On November I, 2005 the CWCB, DWR and USGS
will meet for their semi-annual coordination meeting. This high-level meeting involves the CWCB .
Director, State Engineer, and the USGS Colorado District Chief and their staffs for the purpose of
discussing major gaging issues that concern all entities as well as interagency coordination efforts. An
agenda is currently being developed for the meeting; however, USGS funding problems will be a likely
topic.

Contested ISF Cases (Horsefly and N. Fork Smith Fork):
Stream and Lake Protection Section-Contested 2005 Instream Flow Appropriations (Horsefly Creek and
the North Fork Smith Fork Gunnison River). August 31,2005 was the deadline for all parties to submit
their prehearing statements for the contested instream flow appropriations. A prehearing conference is
scheduled for September 8, 2005. If the parties do not settle, the rebuttal statements are due by October
15,2005 and the hearing will be held in conjunction with the November 2005 CWCB meeting.

North Fork and Smith Fork Study:
Stream and Lake Protection Section--North Fork and Smith Fork Gunnison River study. At the May
2005 CWCB meeting, the Board and the Colorado River District each committed $5000 towards a study
for water planning purposes in the two basins due to the large number of undecreed water uses that
occurred in the basins. At the meetings held in Hotchkiss and Crawford on June 13th and 14th, a steering
committee was formed to discuss this planning objective and how best to utilize these funds. A meeting
is tentatively scheduled for September 22, 2005 for the steering committee to reconvene and discuss
future water needs for the basins and how to best meet those needs. Staff will continue to provide updates
to the Board as the efforts progress.

Colorado Decision Support System (CDSS) Update: SPDSS is moving into its analysis phase of the .
project. In late September 2005, the first Consumptive Use Peer Review Committee will be held. In early
November 2005, the Groundwater Peer Review Committee will meet. These committees are intended to
give interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on the technical aspects of the Project. The
SPDSS Advisory Committee will meet in early October 2005.

ISFDSS development is progressing rapidly. The state's ISFDSScontractor, Riverside Technology, Inc.,
is currently working with the Colorado Division of Wildlife staff to merge their spatial and relational
aquatic species data into the ISFDSS, download hydrologic data from the United State's Geologic
Survey's 1:24K National Hydrology Dataset (NHD), and link the CWCB's existing databases to the
ISFDSS. In addition, an Arc GIS toolset is currently being developed to assist the CWCB's Legal
Protection staff with monthly resume review workflow and board memo preparation. In the coming
months, toolsets will also be developed to assist the staff with new appropriations, acquisitions,
donations, and physical protection (i.e., monitoring) of instream flow water rights.

CROSS is in the maintenance phase with the Colorado and White River basin surface water models being
updated with the latest version of StateMod and extending the data to 2004. Ground truth data of
representative crops grown within the Western Slope were collected for the 2005 irrigation season with
help from the various Water Divisions. This data will be used in the quantification of the irrigated land
refresh for 2005 which will occur in 2006, once satellite imagery is obtained for 2005.

RGDSS is moving towards the completion of the surface water model for the San Luis Valley and should
be completed in early 2006. The groundwater model and data used in the model are currently be reviewed
by various parties associated with lawsuits against the State Engineer concerning the latest rules and
regulations associated with groundwater.

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