BOARD01673

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2006
• Description: WSP Section - Request to Obtain Authorization to expend funds from the Litigation Fund to defend and protect Colorado's allocation of water from the Colorado River
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

To:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Russell George
Executive Director

From: Randy Seaholm, Ted Kowalski

Rod Kuharich
eWeB Director

Date: March 7, 2006

Rick Brown
Acting Deputy
Director

Re: Agenda No. 11, March 21-22,2006 Board Meeting, Water Supply
Protection - Request to obtain authorization to expend funds from the Litigation Fund to
defend and protect Colorado's allocation of water from the Colorado River.

Backl!round

As you know, the unprecedented drought in the past six years in the Colorado River Basin has
drastically lowered storage levels in Lake Powell. While the runoff from last year has improved the
situation, it may have been an anomalous year in a longer period of drought. As described in the
attached request from the Attorney General's Office, storage in Lake Powell protects Colorado and
the other Upper Colorado River Basin states from having to curtail water use to meet compact
delivery requirements to the Lower Colorado River Basin. If the current drought continues, it could
exhaust Lake Powell completely. Although the seven Colorado River Basin States and the federal
. government are currently discussing a variety of drought response measures, and we have signed an
letter to the Secretary of the Interior with a draft agreement and a draft proposal for her
consideration, the State needs to be prepared for the possibility that it will need to engage in
litigation, ifnot in the immediate future at least in the next decade or two.

Section 37-60-l21(2.5)(a), C.R.S. provides:

The board is authorized to expend, pursuant to continuous appropriation and subject to the
requirements of paragraph (b) of this subsection (2.5), a total sum not to exceed four million
dollars from the litigation fund, which is herby created, for the purpose of engaging in litigation:
.. .(III) To defend and protect Colorado's allocations of water in interstate streams and rivers; and
(IV) To ensure the maximum beneficial use of water for present and future generations by
addressing important questions offederallaw."

Section (b) of subsection (2.5) states:

Pursuant to the spending authority set forth in paragraph (a) of this subsection (2.5), moneys may
be expended from the litigation fund at the discretion of the board if: (I) With respect to the

Colorado W atee Conservation Board
Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning