BOARD01778

• Board Meeting Date: 11/20/2000
• Description: Directors' Reports
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

The Spanish Peaks Wilderness provisions specifically amends the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 to
designate certain lands in the San Isabel National Forest, Colorado, as the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. Requires: .
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture to allow the continuation of historic uses of the Bulls Eye Mine Road; and (2) a
access to be provided to any privately owned land within the Wilderness in accordance with the Wilderness A~

For more information see htto://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquerv/D?dl06:3:./temo/-bdfi84::.

RGDSS Status Report: The second year of a three-year, $4,960,000 effort to design and build the Rio
Grande Decision Support System (RGDSS) is almost at an end. Many of the tools and models for RGDSS have
been developed or are nearing completion. An Advisory Committee meeting was held in Monte Vista on
November 8, with presentations by four of the RGDSS contractors to update progress.

The irrigated land assessment for the San Luis Valley is complete, and the consumptive use model has
been used to estimate historical crop consumptive use. The development of the surface water model is nearing
completion with the final calibration in progress.

A total of 13 observation wells have been drilled in the Valley, with several more planned. Pumping
tests have been performed on several of these wells. The ground water model construction is complete, and
calibration of the model is underway.

San Juan and Dolores River Basin Issues

Animas-La Plata Project: On Oct. 25, by a 85-5 vote, the Senate passed and sent to the House the
Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act Amendments of 2000 (S. 2508), twelve years after Congress
approved the original Ute settlement. H.R. 3112, companion legislation introduced by Rep. Scott McInnis (R-
CO), was amended and reported by the House Resources Committee and placed on the calendar for floor action
the same day.

The Administration has expressed its support for the bill, as amended in the Senate, including e
construction of a scaled-down Animas-La Plata Project and creation of a water acquisition as means to finally
settle the Colorado Ute's water right claims. The project, a key element of the settlement, was first authorized to
provide water for southwestern Colorado in 1968 as part of the Colorado River Basin Project Act, which also
authorized the now completed Central Arizona and Central Utah Projects.

319 request for BIanco Rehab Project: The San Juan Water Conservancy District recently submitted a
project proposal for the Lower Rio Blanco Habitat Restoration Project to the Colorado Department of Public
Health and Environment for funding under the Clean Water Act, Section 319, Hydrologic Modification
Category. The total project cost would be $487,000 of which $250,000 would come from 319 funds, $167,000
would be match funds, and $70,000 from other federal sources.

This project will build on the very successful demonstration project that was also funded through Section
319 funds. The original $160,000 project resulted in the rehabilitation of 1.1 miles of stream that had been
severely impacted by the operation and transbasin diversions of the San Juan-Chama Project. It is projected
that an additional 3 to 4 miles of stream can be rehabilitated under the current proposal.

We understand the proposal ranked 5th out of over twenty projects and is currently being reviewed by the
EP A. If successful in this recent venture the District may approach the Board for a grant to complete the
remaining 4 to 5 miles of the Blanco to its confluence with the San Juan River.

Yampa and White River Basin

Yampa Water Management Planning: Work continues to progress toward the completion of a Yampa
~B~~ e

At a conference call on Nov. 3 the participants of a water subcommittee agreed:

14