BOARD01677

• Board Meeting Date: 7/26/1999
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

geographic information systems, data management, imaging, and modeling - designed to
improve water resources planning and management and water rights administration. The
meeting began with brief state reports and a roundtable discussion of water information
management systems. States shared problems and approaches to find solutions. Different state
and federal activities were highlighted .

In Colorado, a multiyear effort to gather, develop and analyze water resources.
information to improve decision making has been driven by the need to comply with interstate
compact requirements and related litigation in major river basins. The Colorado River and Rio
Grande decision support systems are a result of these efforts, as are new tools for monitoring
ground water wells. Water users and users of water resources information -- consultants and
realtors -- are also demanding greater access to more and more data. Public mandates for
expedited water use permitting decisions are also a catalyst for change. In Colorado, each year,
some 10,000 applications for well permits are processed. Permit decisions are to be made within
45 days.

Federal Policy Issues

New Interior Leadership: On June 14 President Clinton appointed Lenna M. Aoki, a
former Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, to be Director of the Interior
Department's Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs. This appointment follows the
appointment of David J. Hayes as Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior on April 21. The
Deputy Secretary is the second in command at Interior responsible for assisting the Secretary in
supervising and administering the department's bureaus and offices. Hayes, 45, served as
Counselor to the Secretary, a position he has held since joining the Interior Department March
31,1997. He will retain his current position and responsibilities of Counselor to the Secretary.
As Counselor, Hayes works directly with Secretary Babbitt on key legal issues associated with
water rights, federal land management, and the national parks.

Reclamation's Strategic Plan: On June 17 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced
that it intends to hold public meetings in the fall of 1999 to discuss revisions to its Strategic Plan.
The CWCB participated in the last revision, in the spring of 1997. Reclamation also asked for
written answers to questions it has about its current plan, about its long-term goals and future _
water issues by July 9. The CWCB did not respond to these questions. For more information
contact Lilas Lindell at [phone].

Clean Water Action Plan: The Departments of Agriculture and Interior released a
"working draft" of a proposed United Federal Policy for a W(ltershed Approach to Federal land
and Resource Management on June 14. An official federal publication with a 90-day public
comment period is expected in the near future. This proposed policy is a result of President
Clinton's Clean Water Action Plan. The plan directs the agencies to develop a coordinated effort
to assess watershed and work with affected interests to restore and protect priority watersheds. A
copy of the working draft can be found on the Internet at www.fs.fed.us/cleanJunified. Public
meetings will be held during the 90-day comment period and a meeting will be held in Denver.

New ESA Policies Published: To encourage voluntary conservation efforts by property
owners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have
published joint final policies for "Safe Harbor" and "Candidate Conservation Agreements with

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