BOARD01847

• Board Meeting Date: 1/26/2000
• Description: Directors' Reports
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

will summarize our shared concerns and request additional consultation. We should be able to bring a
copy of that letter to the meeting for your review.

ESA Working Group: On November 22-23, the Western Governors' Association (WGA) ESA
Working Group met in Denver to review ESA reauthorization issues. In 1995, the WGA presented
Congress with recommendations for improving the Act and these recommendations were incorporated
into S. 1180 that was introduced by then Senator Dirk Kempthorne. The bill was reported from
committee in September 1997, but never reached the Senate floor. No new bill along these lines has been
introduced in the current Congress. More ESA hearings are expected to be held in February or March.

Federal Reserved Water Rights: In November 1999, the Arizona Supreme Court decided that a
federal reserved water right extends to groundwater when groundwater is necessary to accomplish the
purpose of the federal reservation. It also decided that the holder of such a right may invoke federal law
to protect its groundwater to the extent such protection is necessary to fulfill its reserved right (In re Gila
River Adjudication, issues 4 & 5, WC-90-0001-1R, Nov. 19,1999). A copy of the Court's decision may
be obtained from the Internet at www.supreme.state.az.us/ooin/filed99.htm.

National Drought Policy Commission Meeting: The National Drought Policy Commission is
holding a public hearing on January 25 in Austin, Texas. The Commission is conducting a study and
submitting a report to the President and Congress on national drought policy.

Statewide Issues

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Local Water Basin Planning Fact Sheets: The first draft of our fact sheets for the eight principal
watersheds in Colorado is now available for initial distribution and review! Our contractor, Brown and a
Caldwell has done and excellent job in a very short time-frame pulling together basic information ..
concerning the water supply, flood events, stream and lake protection and demographic and water use
trends in each of the watersheds. Big thanks to Hal Simpson for making Ken Knox and other DWR staff
available to help develop these draft fact sheets. Although there are many refinements we will want to
make (e.g., adding active capacity and an indication of the supply available to meet future needs for each
of the listed reservoirs), these drafts are ready to use in starting the local basin planning discussions. You
may recall that we are using Severance Tax Trust Operational Account funds for this project and that we
have reserved sufficient funds to enable each board member select a local "(consultant)" to assist with the
local meetings if you desire.

We have prepared these fact sheets, in part, to respond to concerns expressed by Board members,
legislators and other water community leaders over the last several years that we could do more to support
local basin planning discussions. With these fact sheets, it should be relatively easy for you to select the
location( s) and date( s) to facilitate a discussion of future needs and priorities within each watershed. Our
staff is willing to assist in anyway and to attend your meetings if you desire. If you select a local
"(consultant)" to assist you, they could help with meeting logistics, including news releases, invitations
and the distribution offact sheets as well the preparation of notes and summary following the meeting(s).

Although these local basin planning discussions could continue indefinitely, the funding for this
project is limited to the current fiscal year. Therefore, if we want to incorporate feedback from each
watershed into a "final" set offact sheets, we need to collect and discuss initial feedback and suggested
revisions at our May, 2000 meeting in Alamosa. Under the fiscal rules, any funds not spent on projects a
completed by June 30 will probably revert to the Severance Tax Trust Fund for use in future years based ..

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