BOARD01453

• Board Meeting Date: 1/25/2005
• Description: WSP Section - Statewide Water Supply Initiative ‎(SWSI)‎ Status Update
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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11.6.5 Office of Conservation and

Drought Planning Tasks

General statutory authority Is given to the Board to
provide conservation and drought planning support to the
state and Its citizens. The Conservation and Drought
Planning Section develops and approves water efficiency
plans, monitors water use, provides technical assistance
and public information, inventories and prepares drought
plans, and assists with policy development, while
networking with water suppliers, legislators, and key
constituencies.

Water conservation was identified as a major component
of meeting future demands in every basin. Yet, until the
passage of HB 04-1365, the CWCB had neither the
funding nor authority to help meet this goal. Further
discussions and enhancements to the Board's authority
and role must be made, especially to help those water
suppliers that want to integrate conservation and drought
planning into their systems, but are in need of technical
assistance.

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. Implement HB 04-1365 in such a manner as to give
priority for funding to those entities applying for grants
that have identified conservation as a component of
the 80 percent solution.

. Using the guidelines discussed above, implement the
Technical Assistance to Covered Entities Program.

. Annually publish a report about our progress toward
having implementable conservation and drought
plans.

. Continue to promote the use of landscape BMPs.

. Identify and exploit federal Funding opportunities.

11.6.6 Flood Protection Tasks

The Flood Protection Program is directed by statute to
prevent flood damages, review and approve floodplain
designations prior to adoption by local govemment
entities, and provide local jurisdictions with technical
assistance and floodplain information.

The location of new development greatly impacts the
level of safety required of water suppliers. The level of
safety required for hazard reduction in turn impacts the
cost of building, repairing, and enlarging water projects.
In addition, our watershed protection and river restoration
programs have begun to be utilized to make existing

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C:\OOCUMENlS AND SETTINGS\ROWANNC\OESKTOPlS 11_11.23-04.00C

Section 11
Implementation

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water supplies more useful for a wide variety of
purposes. The Flood Section should:

. Monitor and assist the SEO in its Dam Safety
Rulemaking to revise the Probable Maximum
Precipitation criteria and Spillway Design Criteria to
help reduce costs of new projects and increase
storage while protecting life and property.

. Develop project floodplain delineations to help local
government locate growth.

. Examine the potential for USACE flood control
projects to be used to store more water to meet
needs. In addition, explore the potential to use non-
structural floodway designs, such as wetlands and
parks, to help offset the impacts of new water project
development, and provide environmental benefits.

. Make it a priority, using river restoration techniques
and projects to identify areas of the state that would
benefit from such projects when combined with a
SWSI identified project.

. Make recommendations to the Board about the need
for future project reconnaissance and feasibility
studies that can aid the state in meeting needs,
without simply relying on water suppliers to request
such support.

. Identify and exploit federal funding opportunities.

11.6.7 Water Information Tasks

The Water Information section operates and maintains
the Colorado DSS. This system supports informed
decisionmaking regarding historic and future use of
water.

Data and information gathering and dissemination were a
major obstacle SWSI had to address and attempt to
overcome. There is no doubt that the material presented
in this report will generate much discussion. The SWSI
team put forth the best available data and information at
this time. But, if there is new information and new data,
or if interpretations must change, there is time to make
these changes.

In the meantime, the CWCB should:

. Provide specific recommendations to the Board about
future information needs and gaps and how those
needs and gaps should be met and filled.

. Develop guidelines and proposed requirements for
standardized annual M&I water use data reporting.

aJM

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