BOARD01413

• Board Meeting Date: 7/24/2000
• Description: WSP Section - Platte River Basin Issues - Platte River Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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ST A TE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department otNatural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone] MEMORANDUM

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To:

Colorado Water Conservation Board
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Rick Browff,1>latte River Coordinator, Interstate Streams Investigation
Randy Seahol3'uft~~terstate Streams Investigation

July 17,2000

Bill Owens
Governor

From:

Greg E.Walcher
Executive Director

Date:

Peter H. Evans
CWCB Director

Subject:

Agenda Item 19.d., July 24-25, 2000 Board Meeting. Platte River
Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement.

Dan McAuliffe
Depu ty Director

I. Introduction

In 1997 the Governors of the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming signed an agreement with
the Department of Interior to improve and/or study the habitat of four endangered species in the
Central Platte River in Nebraska. The proposed program has three components: water, land, and
monitoring and research. This memorandum will highlight the status ofthe negotiations and
summarize some of the key activities of several of the Cooperative Agreement (CA) Committees.

II.

Status of Negotiations

Negotiation of a long-term agreement could begin as early as January 2001. Colorado's willingness
to enter into negotiations is of coarse contingent on the acceptability of the proposed program
elements, and the outcome of the National Environmental Policy Act evaluation process.

III. Status of Cooperative Agreement Activities

The focus of our work effort over the last two months has begun to shift from individual committee
activities to assembling the individual pieces into a "proposed program" which can undergo
National Environmental Policy Act evaluation. As we begin to assemble the proposed program it
is apparent that considerable work has been completed. However, we have also identified many
tasks which are not complete and there is some concern that some of these tasks may be rolled
forward as work tasks to be completed during the implementation of the proposed program.

Our challenge is to complete as much work as possible in order to increase the level of certainty
associated with the proposed program. However, in some cases there is either insufficient time
and/or limited information to make definitive decisions. In these cases it may make sense to move
completion ofthe tasks forward. We will continue to carefully assess the level of detail and
certainty that Colorado can accept.

A brief summary of the status of important individual committee activities is provided below:

. The Water Action Plan was once again the center of attention. In May and June we saw the
three states pull together and reach the water goal of 130,000-150,000 acre feet! The precise
quantity of water is being defined by modeling efforts but we have confidence that we will at
least make the lower limit.