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<br />" <br />~ <br /> <br />1> <br />~4 <br />"., <br /> <br />.~. , <br /> <br />Unified Watershed Policy: On Oct. 18 Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and USDA Secretary Dan <br />Glickman released the Administration's unified federal policy on watershed management entitled a "Watershed <br />Approach to Federal Land and Resource Management." e <br /> <br />The policy, also adopted by EP A and the Departments of Commerce, Defense; and Energy, the <br />Tennessee Valley Authority, and Army Corps of Engineers, provides a framework for federal agencies to protect <br />water quality and aquatic ecosystems and reduce polluted runoff. The policy only applies to federal lands, and is <br />one of the action items in the President's Clean Water Action Plan: Restoring and Protecting America's Waters. <br />The final policy has :,cen revised in response to public comments on the proposed policy published in the <br />Federal Register on February 22,2000 (65 FR 8834). <br /> <br />Copies of the final policy are available online at www.c1eanwater.gov/ufo. <br /> <br />WSWC Meeting Held in Grand Junction: The 134th Western States Water Council (WSWC) meeting <br />was held in Grand Junction on Oct. 18-20. Sixteen member states were represented. The Council passed a <br />resolution supporting Reclamation's Water Conservation Field Services Program and related partnership <br />initiatives. We hosted a field trip for council members. They visited a fish hatchery raising razorback suckers <br />and a new fish ladder on the Gunnison River related to the Upper Colorado River endangered fish recovery <br />program. They also visited the Grand Valley Diversion Dam on the Colorado River and related canals, laterals <br />and power facilities that supply irrigation water to farmers in the area. A significant portion of the distribution <br />system has been piped for water conservation and salinity control. The system has been delivering water to some <br />40,000 acres of land since 1917. <br /> <br />The Water Quality Committee discussed potential future pollution trading markets, water quality <br />improvement projects funded by the Northwest Power Planning Council, planning for the next WGA TMDL <br />Workshop to be held on March 14, and changes to the WSWC's Clean Water Act position to incorporate <br />concerns with EP A's TMDL rules. e <br /> <br />The Legal Committee recommended that the Council renew its position in support of federal payment of <br />fees for non-tribal claims filed in state general water right adjudications. Unlike other water uses in the <br />adjudication, the federal government can not be required to pay filing fees for costs related to its claims. The <br />Committee also discussed appropriate legislative strategies for promoting the reintroduction and passage of the <br />Water Adjudication Fee Fairness Act, introduced this year by Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID). <br /> <br />The committee also discussed events related to Nevada v. South Fork Band of the Te-Moak, an <br />unsuccessful attempt to apply the Public Trust Doctrine to a case involving Walker Lake in Mineral County, <br />Nevada and another case in which Hawaii's Supreme Court referenced the doctrine in affirming the rededication <br />of flows no longer used for irrigation to instream purposes, jurisdictional claims by the FERC over water <br />releases from Bear Lake, on the Utah-Idaho border and Jennifer Gimbel updated members on preparation for the <br />American Bar Association Water Law Conference. <br /> <br />The Water Resources Committee talked about water resources information management needs, <br />including funding for USGS's cooperative stream gaging program and USDA's snow survey program, and <br />problems obtaining USDA aerial photography surveys. <br /> <br />Hal Simpson spoke on Colorado water resource issues, transbasin diversions, growing municipal needs, <br />ground water management, federal law and policies related to the ESA, USFS bypass flows, and the Animas-La <br />Plata Project. He noted the increasing conflict between environmental and economic uses of water, despite <br />water conservation and reuse initiatives. <br /> <br />Charles Calhoun, Upper Colorado BOR Regional Director, represented Commissioner Eluid Marti_ <br />He spoke on the Colorado River surplus guidelines, ESA, the Rio Grande silvery minnow, Upper Colorad. <br /> <br />4 <br />