BOARD02145

• Board Meeting Date: 1/26/2000
• Description: CF Section - Non-Reimbursable Projects - Platte River Recovery Program - South Platte Sustainment Project Reconnaissance Study
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone, [phone]
FAX, [phone]

E)

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

To:

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Randy Seaholm, Chief, Interstate Streams Investigations #
Rick Brown, Interstate Streams Investigations C ..-
Bill Green, Water Supply Planning and Finance1? tr
Mike Serlet, P.E., Chief, Water Supply Planning and
Finance

From:

Peter H. Evans
ewes Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

Date:

January 18, 2000

Subject:

Agenda Item 12c., January 26-27, 2000 Board Meeting-
Water Supply Planning and Finance - Non-Reimbursable Projects-
Platte River Recovery Program - South Platte Sustainment Project
Reconnaissance Study

Introduction

The Board will be asked to approve a staff recommendation to authorize the expenditure
of $145,000 from the Construction Fund for a reconnaissance-level study to evaluate
water management and storage alternatives in the Lower South Platte Basin in Colorado.
The study is intended to provide information that will assist in identifYing water
management structures and/or measures that could facilitate Colorado's management of
South Platte River flows for water right administration and compact purposes as well as
participation in the Three-State Platte River Cooperative Agreement (CA).

Backl!round

The CA was signed by the states of Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the US
Department ofInterior (acting through the Fish and Wildlife Service) in July 1997. The
overall goal of the CA is to improve the survival of whooping cranes, piping plovers, and
the interior least tern by improving flow and habitat conditions along the Central Platte
River in Nebraska. The term of the CA is three years. The CA requires the States to
implement specific water management activities and to develop additional plans that, if
agreed to by all parties, will become part of a 10-to l3-year Implementation Program.

The CA water goal is to increase flow in the Central Platte by 130,000 to 150,000 acre-
feet annually. This water will be provided in two phases. The first phase requires the