BOARD02336

• Board Meeting Date: 9/27/1999
• Description: Directors' Reports
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

recovering from drought, and Texas is recovering from drought, but is getting drier.

Another tool, the Drought Monitor is a cooperative effort between the USDA, NOAA, and the
National Drought Mitigation Center. It is updated weekly and shows current drought severity for various
areas of the country.

Drought Planning: Bill Stanton has been reviewing literature on risk based drought analysis. He
plans to have a low-flow frequency analysis computer program running. He is also conducting a
telephone survey of the municipal water providers that provide 2,000 acre-feet or more of treated water to
determine the extent of drought SURFACE WA TER'SUPPL Y INDEX
planning in Colorado. We plan AUGUST 1,1999
to conduct a more formal
survey of municipal providers
and agricultural water users in
October.

Only a few
communities have done any
risk based drought assessment Ab,.d... S,,,ly
or drought mitigation planning. N..t ".~..
Denver Water, on the other M.dM'lOo,""h'
hand, prepared a Drought .......o'""h.
Response Plan in July 1997 that Ex..moo,""h'
included an analysis of a
synthetic 274-year tree-ring
record to estimate that the drought in the 1950s had about a 29-year recurrence interval. Denver's drought
declaration triggers are tied to July I storage, and various response "option menus" for mild, moderate,
and severe drought have been developed. An in-house exercise of its response plan was conducted in July.
Loveland recently completed a Phase I Drought Study based on a I ,OOO-year synthetic monthly supply
record to determine 100-year drought conditions. The study led to the enlargement of Green Ridge Glade
Reservoir, which is being financed by the Construction Fund. Other communities that have done some
drought planning include Greeley, Longmont, Aurora, Golden, Colorado Springs, Aspen, and Lamar.
Through the development of this inventory, we expect to be able to support more effective, wide-scale
drought planning efforts at the community level within a matter of months.

Colorado Dam Site Inventory Status: With technical assistance from the Colorado Geologic
Survey, the location of potential reservoir sites has been converted to longitude and latitude coordinates
for presentation on a Geographic Information System map. Eventually, a series of county maps showing
potential reservoir sites or reservoir enlargement sites for use by county planning commissions in making
land use decisions will be produced.

Weather Modification Program: The only active cloud seeding program is the hail suppression
and rain augmentation project along the eastern edge of Yuma and Cheyenne counties. There were a total
of three days in July and two in August in which weather modification operations were conducted.

AgriculturallMultipurpose Demonstration Grants: We have accepted a study of sediment
transport models prepared for the North Poudre Irrigation District by CSU as another completed project.
The Pueblo CSU Extension Office also submitted a draft final report on its Stonewall Springs Farm

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