BOARD02336

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

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Flood Response Update: A complete flood response update will be presented as Agenda Item
10. In response to the Presidential Disaster Declaration (DR -1126-CO), the staff is shifting direction
from response toward mitigation. The State Hazard Mitigation Team (SHlvIT) has been meeting to
develop mitigation goals and recommendations to be included in the Colorado Flood Hazard Mitigation
Plan. The plan is a condition of federal disaster assistance. An SHMT subcommittee is also provide
guidance to the Colorado Office of Emergency Management to select projects to fund that are designed to
build disaster resistant communities.

Colorado has also become eligible for FEMA "Unmet Needs Funds." These funds will provide
money for mitigation activities in states with recent disaster declarations. The funding priorities are: I)
acquisition of flood-prone properties, 2) mitigation, 3) long-term recovery, and 4) disaster relief. An
application has been sent to FEMA asking for funds for proposed mitigation activities submitted by
communities and entities under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Colorado does not have
enough funds to accomplish all 15 proposed HMGP projects, so the additional funding would be
welcome.

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Colorado Water Congress Summer Convention: On August 26 and 27, Dan McAuliffe and I
attended the annual Colorado Water Congress Summer Convention in Steamboat Springs. The highlights
of the convention included:

· a preview of where Governor Owens' cabinet officials from DNR, Health and Agriculture
want to lead their respective departments;
· a presentation by various water providers about planning efforts (past, present and future);
· some "keynotes" on water issues such as the EPA's TMDL rules;
· a panel of legislators discussing expectations for the 62'd General Assembly (lots of tax
legislation and possibly another water planning bill by Rep. Smith); and
· a panel forecasting water resource developments for Colorado in the next century.

Specific concerns of interest to us include strong interest in the pending rulemaking for the Stream
and Lake Protection Program and our role in statewide water supply planning.

Arkansas River Basin Issues

Inundation Request: On August 9, the Pueblo Board of Water Works filed a request to "Partially
Inundate an Existing Decreed Instream Flow Water Right" on East Tennessee Creek.

We ratified the Statement of Opposition in this case in March 1999. Pueblo plans to build a
12,230 acre-foot conditional storage reservoir with an additional enlargement of 16,558 acre-feet of
conditional storage along with conditional appropriative rights of exchange in Pueblo, Fremont, Chaffee
and Lake Counties. Pueblo plans to fill this reservoir with water from Tennessee Creek and its tributaries
and/or by exchange with credits from any of its trans-mountain sources (i.e. Ewing, Wurtz, Columbine,
Busk-Ivanhoe, Homestake, Independence Pass and/or Fry-Ark Systems) and/or native water stored in
Turquoise Lake, Twin Lakes, Clear Creek and Pueblo Reservoirs and/or with waste water return flows.

Pueblo is requesting an appropriative right of exchange for all of the above water rights into
Tennessee Creek Reservoir for different rates and different exchange dates. Pueblo is also requesting the
right to exchange water stored in Tennessee Creek Reservoir into Turquoise, Twin Lakes and Clear Creek
Reservoirs. The dates of appropriation for these exchanges are June 26,1967, and July 1,1997.

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