BOARD01847

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

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a upon future legislative appropriations. During the next three months, we will be glad to help each of you
,., develop and implement a plan for distributing these fact sheets in your basin as you see fit, and collecting
responses. We plan to call each of you in the first part of February to explore your plans. As we begin to
get a schedule together, we will circulate an overall summary to each of you.

Wildlife Commission Briefed on Stream and Lake Protection: We were invited to attend the
Colorado Division of Wildlife's (CDOW) Commissioners meeting on December 10, 1999. This meeting
provided opportunities for our staff to familiarize the Wildlife Commission with the Board's Stream and
Lake Protection Program, for the Commissioners to ask questions about our Program, and for a discussion
of issues of common concern to both agencies. Our presentation was well received and the
Commissioners asked several questions about the new appropriation process, monitoring program, and
acquisition program. The Commissioners also expressed interest in working with us to determine whether
the Program could address some emerging threatened and endangered aquatic species issues.

Proposed Instream Flow Workshop: We would like to talk with you about scheduling a half or
full day workshop in February to discuss several instream flow issues. The issues could include working
GOCO funding, monitoring, mitigation, water rights to protect recreational uses, and long range planning
for new appropriations.

Gaging and Monitoring: The Stream and Lake Protection Program staff have been working with
the Division of Water Resources to improve the administration and physical protection of the our instream
flow water rights. In December, staff from both agencies monitored snowmaking activities at a number of
Colorado ski resorts to ensure instream flow rights were not impacted. In September and October, we
a worked with the Division 5 Engineer's office to install a new state of the art gaging station on Snowmass
,., Creek. The station is equipped with an Accu-Bubble recorder and Satellite Data Collection Platform
which transmits real time data to State's Satellite -Linked Water Resources Monitoring System. We also
worked together to improve upon the real-time monitoring capabilities of the existing gaging station on
the Snake River located at Keystone. This gage provides monitoring information to both agencies as well
as Keystone Resorts so that Snowmaking can be maximized without infringing upon the CWCB's Snake
River instream flow water right.

Weare also discussing how to combine our resources and implement of a pilot program in two
water districts in Division 7. The program would rely on providing individual division engineers with a
GIS mapping showing instream flow locations, Decision Support System administration tools,
information management databases, real-time satellite data, and a combination of staff expertise and
resources from both agencies.

Water Acquisition Activities: We are meeting with representatives from GOCO, Trout
Unlimited, State Parks and the DOW to discuss potential cooperative stream and lake protection efforts.
We have discussed how the CWCB could receive GOCO funding to help the DOW, State Parks and
GOCO implement their long-range plans that include a water resource component. We would also like to
discuss how the acquisition program could be used to protect flows in lower reaches of rivers that have
been identified as habitat for endangered, threatened and declining species in a manner that would be
recognized as sufficient by the federal government. Currently, we cannot directly receive GOCO funding
to acquire water. However, other eligible recipients such as municipalities and counties, political
subdivisions, non-profit organization, State Parks, and DOW may be able to acquire water (using GOCO

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