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<br />-r-' \0 <br /> <br />Activity UDdate <br /> <br />There are a number of committees and subcommittees that are dealing with a myriad of <br />issues. The following information is a brief summary of activities from the committee <br />meetings that we attend. <br /> <br />· Governance Committee - This committee provides overall CA policy and <br />decision making functions. As you may be aware Governor Owens, via executive <br />order, appointed Greg Walcher (DNR), Don Ament (DOA), and Howard Propst <br />(citizen) to represent Colorado on this committee. <br />· Environmental Account - The CA cans for the establishment of an Environmental <br />Account in Lake McConaughy. This Environmental Account is a quantity of <br />water that can be released, under the direction of the Fish and Wildlife Service <br />(Environmental Account Manager), to improve flow conditions. in the critical <br />habitat area. The Environmental Account can hold between 100,000 and 200,000 <br />acre-feet of water. This year the Environmental Account contains 100,000 acre- <br />feet. Based on the current predicted flow for the central Platte we do not expect <br />that the Environmental Account water will be used to any great extent this year. <br />· Reservoir Coordinating - The fIrst meeting of the reservoir coordinating <br />committee was held in November in Ogallala, Nebraska. The focus of this group <br />is to facilitate communication among the key reservoir operators (primarily <br />Bureau of Reclamation, Nebraska Public Power District and Central Nebraska <br />Public Power and Irrigation District), and to optimize reservoir operations to <br />provide maximum flow benefIts. This group will work closely with the <br />Environmental Account manager to develop water balances and coordinate <br />reservoir releases. <br />· Water Management - This groups focus is on water accountirlg and tracking. The <br />accounting/tracking group is identifying different tools for monitoring and <br />crediting water delivery. It is anticipated that a mutually acceptable monitoring <br />plan will be completed within the next six to eight months. <br />· Water Planning - This groups focus is on the developmentof a'water action plan <br />that will detail how additional water might be provided to the critical habitat. We <br />currently have several conceptual plans for how additional water might be <br />provided. Colorado will need to present our conceptual plan to the Governance <br />Committee next month. <br />· Technical Committee - This groups focus is on target species monitoring. A <br />general draft monitoring and research plan was completed in October 1999. <br />Comments are currently being taken on this draft. In addition, the technical group <br />is responsible for developing and implementing specifIc monitoring and research <br />protocols for the target species. The overall objective of the monitoring and <br />research effort has not been mutually agreed to. Some parties may not support the <br />use of specifIc targets/numbers for the species as a measure of the programs <br />success. They point out that it may be preferable to measure compliance based on <br />achieving project milestones. <br />· A third party impact draft report was recently released for review. Staff is in the <br />process of reviewing the report. <br /> <br />We appreciate your consideration of the topics outlined in this memorandum and look <br />forward to discussing your views. <br /> <br />3 <br />