BOARD02336

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

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stream gages in Colorado on a 50-50 cost-share basis with local cooperators. At a September 2 meeting,
Bill Horak, USGS Colorado District Chief, outlined the steps the USGS will take to live within the
expected shortfall. Locals will be asked to pay' an increasing share of gage costs, closer to a 60-40 split.
Most local cooperators may not be able to absorb the increases and may drop some of their gages. We
will coordinate with the DNR in drafting a letter urging Congress and the Interior Department to fund this
data collection activity and preserve this data collection network. We may also find a need to provide
emergency funding to assist local cooperators with their gaging stations.

FY2000 Water Resource Appropriations: The FY2000 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill
passed the House on July 27, following Senate approval on June 28. The House bill appropriates 520.2
billion and the Senate bill appropriates $21.27 billion. The House approved $4.19 billion for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, which is $282.6 million more than the President requested, and $91.2 million
more than was appropriated in FY 1999.

The Senate bill has $3.733 billion for the Corps. Funding for the Bureau of Reclamation totals
$761.2 million in the Senate and $784.7 million in the House. The latter total is $2.6 million more than
FY 1999, but $71.9 million less than the President requested.

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WSWC Meetings: Hal Simpson represented us at the Western States Water Council August 19-
20 in Jackson, Wyoming, participating in the adoption of two new policy positions. The first asks that,
where Native American land and water claims have been negotiated and settlements enacted into law, the
President and the Congress recognize such settlements as mandatory obligations of the federal
government and change current budgetary policy accordingly (they have been treated as discretionary
spending). The new WSWC position states that it is "virtually impossible for the Administration, the
States or the Tribes to negotiate settlements knowing that they will not be funded...If such a change is not
made, all of these claims will be relegated to litigation, an outcome which ought not to be acceptable."

The second position asks the Administration and Congress to support legislation to "establish that
the United States (not tribes) be subject to fees and costs imposed by the staters] to conduct litigation
proceedings to the same extent as private users and other non-tribal entities." Under current federal law,
federal water right claims must be raised in state general stream adjudications. States officially quantify
and record water right claims and private and public water right holders benefit from the protection
afforded by determining their relative priorities and the amount of unappropriated water that may remain
available to satisfy other uses. However, federal courts have determined that, even though the United
States must be joined in such adjudications in state courts, the federal government need not pay state fees
imposed on applicants for processing claims. This has concerned the states because federal water right
claims are often the largest and most complicated.

The WSWC Water Quality Committee discussed an upcoming WGA workshop on the recently
released EPA TMDL rule in Park City, Utah on September 22 and 23. Proposed legislation drafted by the
Western Coalition of Arid States (WESTCAS) to amend the Clean Water Act (CW A) was also discussed.

Corps Omnibus Bill: President Clinton has signed the Water Resources Development Act of
1999 (S. 507) the biannual Army Corps of Engineers authorization bill. Title I authorizes navigation,
flood control, environmental and ecosystem restoration, recreation, hurricane and storm damage reduction
projects. It also authorizes other water development and conservation projects, subject to a final favorable

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