BOARD01778

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

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Arkansas River Basin Issues

_ Arkansas River Compact Administration Meeting: The annual meeting of the Arkansas River
_ Compact Administration will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 12 in Lamar. Committee meetings will be held the
afternoon and evening of Monday, Dec. 11. Administration advisors will be meeting in Pueblo on Nov. 29 to
review John Martin operations and accounting issues and other key questions.

Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site Established: S.2950, the bill by U.S. Sen. Campbell to establish
the Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site was signed by the President on Nov. 7. The bill directs the Secretary of
the Interior, upon a determination that sufficient land has been acquired by the National Park Service (NPS) in
Kiowa County to establish a Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site to commemorate the massacre of more
than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians under the leadership of Chief Black Kettle who were murdered by U.S.
soldiers along Sand Creek in southwestern Colorado territory on November 29, 1964. The bill directs the
Secretary to: (1) administer the Site as part of the NPS; (2) develop a Site management plan; and (3) prepare
programs that educate the public about the Site. Authorizes the Secretary to acquire land and interests within the
Site's boundaries for such purposes. It requires descendants of such Indians to have reasonable rights of access
to, and use of, federally acquired land within the Site. It directs the Secretary to: (1) grant to any descendant or
tribal member reasonable access to federally acquired land within the Site for carrying out traditional, cultural,
or historical observance (closing the area to the general public during such period); and (2) dedicate a portion of
the Site to certain burial and commemorative remains and objects.

For more information see http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-
bi n/bdQuerv /D? d 1 06: 2: .ltemp/ - bd5 vnA:: I/bss/ d 1 06Querv .htmll.

EA Recommends Leadville National Fish Hatchery Concentrate Efforts To Develop Program
For Native Cutthroat Trout: On Sept 14 the USFWS recommended in an Environmental Assessment (EA)
that the Leadville National Fish Hatchery concentrate its efforts on developing a native cutthroat trout
broodstock and refugia for the federally threatened greenback cutthroat trout, with possible programs developed
for the Colorado River and Rio Grande cutthroat trout in the future.

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Colorado River Basin Issues

Salinity Control Ceiling Authorization Increase: S. 2619, the bill that amends the Colorado River
Basin Salinity Control Act to increase the authorization of appropriations was signed by the President on Nov.
7.

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The Colorado River provides water for more than 18 million people in seven States; it also provides
irrigation water for about 2 million acres of land. The salinity, or salt content, of the river is high. The 1944
Mexico Treaty obligates the U.S. to provide 1.5 million-acre feet of water to Mexico, but does not address
quality. Mexico filed a formal protest in the 1960's when salinity increased sharply. Several minutes to the
Treaty were negotiated, the final one being Minute 242. The most important provision requires that the average
annual salinity of the Colorado delivered upstream from Morelos Dam (Mexico's principal diversion dam)
would not exceed the average salinity of the water arriving at Imperial Dam by more than 115 parts per million,
plus or minus 30 ppm.

To address salinity problems, Congress passed the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974.
Title I addressed the Mexican obligation by authorizing the Yuma Desalting Plant, the Wellton-Mohawk
Irrigation drainage reduction program, concrete lining of the Coachella Canal in California (allowing the United
States to use the conserved water to replace drainage water bypassed to Mexico), and a well field in Arizona
known as the Protective and Regulatory Pumping Unit. Title II of the Act authorized the Secretary of the interior
to construct several salinity control projects, most of which are located in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
Amendments to the Act in 1984 authorized additional Reclamation projects and added new responsibilities for
the BLM and the Department of Agriculture.

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