BOARD02010

• Board Meeting Date: 9/24/2001
• Description: Snowmass Water and Sanitation District 404 Permit
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

open and involving of their citizens. We feel that a decisiqn ofthis consequence deserves a full public ...
fact finding process. I understand that should the decisio~ to re-open be made that it will trigger a re- ,.,
permitting process that would be no different than the prohessing a new 404 permit application. Any
permit holder facing such a situation would incur signific\lIlt costs,

Third, I was disturbed by the statements made by Brooks Carter of the COB's Salt Lake City office,
which indicated that he has already made up his mind tha~ the permit should be re-opened, Many, who
attended the meeting, including myself, were left with the feeling that re-opening the permit was a
foregone conclusion, I am concerned that a decision-malter with this bias cannot be objective in making
such an important decision. A person in such a position 9f authority could harm the COB's reputation
and worsen the relationship between the COB and the st~te, which many of us have been trying to
improve, I am concerned that a decision-maker with this 'type of bias cannot be objective in making a
decision such as this and would ask that he be replaced by someone who can be unbiased and objective
in this matter,

. . Fomth, the-justification for-re..opening the pemrltis..to bIlbased on a ''white paper': report by aformer
employee the COB, Mike Claffee who was withthe C~'s GnmdJunction office: We h=not been
provided a copy of this report and were told by Mr. Carter that it would be provided to us at some future
date once the conclusions were removed from the docurhent. Again, to base such an important decision
on an internal report that has not been subject to peer or: public review is troubling. I request that this
.."V{~t~2aP'e.r':,.i!1()~u.djIfg ~yconc1~s\0l:~S! b~ m~Ae ,a;:aiJaple ~o .th~ CW.CB fClr its rev~e:w .immediately,

It is my understanding from our meeting that the petition to modify is based, not on any observed
. . , degradation of th~ fishl:lry r.eso\l!ce, but r.athe..r on t4e9r~tic~l "what ifs:: I do not be1ieye that a decision ...
of this nature should be based on such assumptions. T1).e last item on your outline from our meeting _
referenced "significant degradation of the waters ofthe;U.S.", It is my understanding that the conditions
on Snowmass Creek do not show evidence of any suchldegradation, instead it is just the opposite,
Snowmass Creek appears to support a viable fishery mid has done so for the past twenty-three years
since the COB first issued its 404 Permit. .

The chairman of the CWCB, Harold Miskel, has written to invite Colonel (promotable) Larry Davis to
our next board meeting, The purpose of this invitatior( is to provide a public forum to discuss this matter
prior to the COB making any formal decision about retopening the permit. This will provide the state
and other interested parties an opportunity to comment on this petition, The Board's next meeting will
be in Cortez, Colorado on September 24 and 25, 20011, I extending the same invitation to you to attend
the Board's Cortez meeting, j.

Should there be unavoidable conflicts that prevent th~ COB representatives from attending the Cortez
meeting, I would work to schedule a special meeting of the Board to discuss this matter. I look forward
to hearing from you, and hope that we can resolve this issue amicably,

S~~K~

Rod Kuharich .

CC: Colonel (promotable) Larry Davis
Members CWCB
Brooks Carter

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Flood Protection. Water Project Planning. and Financing. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply PrOtection . Co~ervation Planning