BOARD02312

• Board Meeting Date: 11/19/2001
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

highest award for civil servants. He was recognized along with 344 government employees at a cere1!lony at
Washington's Constitution Hall for his innovative approaches to fish and wildlife management.

TMDL Meetings: EP A is conducting five public meetings on the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) e
program to gather inforlhation as it considers changes to the regulations which govern the TMDL program.
The meetings are being held in Chicago, Sacramento, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C. For
more information on the TMDL program and the meetings visit htto://www,ena.gov/owow/trndl/.

Biennial Indian Water Rights Symposium: On Oct. 10-lZ, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and
Western States Water Council (WSWC) held their 7th Symposium on the Settlement ofIndian Reserved
Water Rights Claims in St. George, Utah. John Echohawk, NARF Executive Director, spoke about the Ad
Hoc Group on Indian Water Rights Settlements. Its purpose is to resolve Indian water issues out of court. He
supported legislation sponsored by Sen, Domenici (R-NM),S. 1186), which would increase the budget caps
for the Indian water rights settlements. For more information about the symposium cOntact the Western
States Water Council (httn://www.westgov.org/wswci).

Snow Survey: On Oct. 25, the Senate approved its FY2002: Agriculture Appropriations bill (S, 1191). The
bill includes $8.5 million for snow survey and water forec~sting. The House has passed H.R. 2330 with $7,1
million for snow surveys and water supply forecasting.

Water Funds: The House and Senate have approved an appropriations committee conference agreement that
provides $914.3 million for Reclamation. This is $97.6 million more than last year. This includes $7 million
for Small Reclamation Project loans, $55 million for the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund, and $553
million for administration and $35 million for the Central Utah Project Completion Account, with $10,7
million going to the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Account.

USGS Funds: On Oct. 17 the Senate agreed to a Conferen~e Report for funding for the Department of
Interior. $64 million was given to the U.S. Geological SurVey (USGS) to spend on water resources
investigations. The report also directs the National Academy of Sciences to examine water resources
research funded by all federal agencies because federal appropriators believe research is not well
coordinated. The repon directs the Academy to consider tb,e current allocation of resources in various water
research programs and make recommendations.

New Direction for USFWS?: In the same Conferencl:: report mentioned above, appropriators told the
USFWS that "Work by the Service to mitigate the effects Mwater resource development projects conducted
by other federal agencies should be performed on a cOst reimbursable basis and the Service should receive
full and fair compensation for such work."

WSWC Meeting: The 137th Western Sates Water Council meeting was held in Oklahoma City on Nov. 14-
16. Hal and Kent HolSinger our are representatives and they can give us a briefing at our meeting.

TMDLs Deadline Set: The,EPA has set April 30, 2003 as the effective date of revisions to EPA's TMDL
and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NI1DES) Program released on July 13, 2000. The
final rule published on Oct. 18 states that EP A will re-con~ider the choices made in the July 2000 rule in
light of concerns expressed by organizations, in a nUlnberiof studies and in recommendations in a June' 19
report by the National Research Council. In the interim, EPA will continue to operate under the 1985 TMDL
regulations, ,as amended in 1992, and States will continue to develop TMDLs to meet water quality standards
intended to clean up the Nation's waters. '

Watershed Report: The EPA has published an online report entitled, "Watershed Success Stories: Applying
the Principles and Spirit of the Clean Water Action Plan. '! The report highlights case studies of successful
cooperative efforts. The case studies include Willow Creek, San Miguel River and the North Fork of the ...
Gunnison River in Colorado, For a copy of the report visit www.c1eanwater,gov/success. . ..

Water Project Financing: On Nov. 6 Texans voted on a proposed state constitutional amendment

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