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FamUy Farm Alliance Reps Highlight Agricultural Needs at Colorado River Symposium: . Family Farm Alliance President Patrick O'Toole (Savery, Wyo) and Advisory Committee member John Sullivan (Phoenix, AZ) addressed attendees at the Colorado River Project September 28-30 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The theme of the symposium - hosted by the Water Education Foundation - was "Sharing the Risks: Shortage, Surplus and Beyond." .. O'Toole and Sullivan were part of a panel addressing "The Future of Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin". They spoke to an audience of water managers, power managers, lawyers, educators and others interested in the issues surrounding the Colorado River and its role in providing water to the West. O'Toole told the group that the Alliance membership is concerned by the growing trend toward the transfer of agricultural water to municipal and industrial uses. He emphasized the need for additional water storage and described the data base developed by the Alliance to identifY potential projects in the Western states. "The drought has accelerated by 20 years the need for action on problems brought about by increased demands on the River," said 0' Toole. He also pointed out that the dewatering of agriculture does not benefit wetlands and fisheries. "It puta houses on farmland," he said. O'Toole noted that farmera and agricultural producers had largely been referred to in the abstract throughout the course of the Sante Fe conference. "We are real people doing real things with real land and water," he told the group. He cautioned that farmland and irrigation water needs to be protected from the demands of unrestrained growth. CRWCB Holds QuarterJy Meeting: The Colorado River Water Conservation Board held its quarterly meeting in Glenwood Springs on Oct. 18-19. Their director's report on this meeting is posted on their . website at htto:llwww.crwcd.l!Ov.htm Colorado River Water CODservatloD District - AffirmatloD of CertalD Policies CODceralDg Colorado River Matters: Attached hereto are four policy statements that the Colorado River Water Conservation District has adopted or recently reaffumed concerning Colorado River issues. The District's policy concerning transmountain diversions and their general opposition of such is of note. MetropolltaD Water District CEO Passes Away: Dennis Underwood, CEO and General Manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, passed away on Nov. 2 from cancer. Over the years, Dennis Underwood served as Commissioner for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, worked for the State of California and in private consulting. Mr. Underwood was appointed CEO and General Manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in April of this year and was an acknowledged expert on Western water issues and Colorado River matters. His leadership and contributions to western water and his ability to help foster resolutions to difficult water issues on the Colorado River have been immeasurable, and he and wise council will truly be missed. GUDDlson River Basin Aspinall UDlt Operations EIS: The Board reviewed Reclamation's most recent draft of the proposed "No Action Alternative" and staff subsequentially submitted a comment letter to Reclamation conveying the Board's direction to staff. Other cooperating agencies suhmitted additional comment lettera. Reclamation subsequentially made revisions and prepared a draft fmal No Action Alternative description. The revised language regarding protections for future water development departs from the language suggested by the CWCB. However, the Board's proposed protection language was incorporated into the . discussion concerning the 60,000 acre-foot subordination. Staff supported the 60,000 acre-foot subordination protection language and requested that Reclamation provide the same protections for the Aspinall Units remaining project yield of approximately 240,000 acre-feet. At the cooperating agency 22