BOARD01775

• Board Meeting Date: 3/20/2000
• Description: Platte River Basin Issues - Platte River Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement - Water Action Plan Committee Update
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

proposed recreation management by Jefferson County Open Space along portions of the
North Fork, and a special recreation area at Bailey Canyon to be managed by the US
Forest Service,

4, Cooperative water quality initiatives through an Upper South Platte Watershed
Steering Committee, composed of interested local governments, agencies and parties in
the basin, which was triggered by this proposal but is expected to continue independently
of the South Platte Protection Plan, (Watershed management is more fully described in
Attachment E ).

5, Endowment. Front Range local governments and water suppliers will contribute at least
one million dollars to be spent on the values identified by the Forest Service. (More fully
described in Attachment D), A board will be convened within 90 days following a
decision by the U,S, Forest Service to adopt the South Platte Protection Plan in lieu of
designation,

6, The South Platte Enhancement Board. A coordinating forum, the South Platte
Enhancement Board, will provide comments and responses on activities such as land use
or land management planning decisions, as well as deciding expenditures from the
endowment. (More fully described in Attachment D ),

7, Withdrawal of 1986 applications for conditional storage rights. Both Denver Water
and the Metropolitan Denver Water Authority would withdraw Water Court applications
for 780,000 acre feet of additional storage at the Two Forks reservoir site,

8, Alternatives to development of Denver's right-of-way. Denver Water and
environmental groups have proposed a working relationship that could lead to alternative
projects and allow Denver later to relinquish their 1931 right-of-way on the South Platte at
Two Forks. (More fully described in Attachment F).

It is proposed that enforcement of the South Platte Protection Plan be provided by a written
agreement between the U.S, Forest Service and those entities making commitments within
the Plan. We understand and expect that such an agreement shall be written in a manner to
provide for enforcement through the Administrative Procedures Act by citizen or group with
standing in a manner similar to remedies available if a river were designated under the Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act. It is further recommended that such an agreement provide for public
participation in the event of significant changes to the written agreement, leases to State
Parks or other major concessionaires, or in the event of adoption of a Recreation
Management Plan or amendments thereto so that the public can ascertain and comment on
consistency with the South Platte Protection Plan,

RECREATION MANAGEMENT

The proponents of the South Platte Protection Plan recommend a unified recreation
management approach, including U,S, Forest lands and lands owned by Denver Water, in a
U,S, Forest Service/Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation ("State Parks")

5