BOARD02340

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/1999
• Description: 1999 Colorado Legislative Activities - HB 99-1050 - Process and Funding for Development of Water Projects
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORI\DO

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Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
721 Centennial Building
1 313 Sherman Street
Denver, ColorJdo 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director, DNR

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Peter Evans 'V~ 1::. -
Acting Director

Peter H. Evans
Acting Director, ewes

FROM:

DATE:

January 18,1999

RE:

Agenda Item 19c, January 27-28, 1998 Board Meeting-- .
HB 99-1050, Process and Funding for Development of Water Projects

Representative Matt Smith has continued his efforts to establish a statewide
process for local basin planning groups to identify future water resource needs, and for
the Water Conservation Board and State Engineer to integrate those various plans into a
report for the Colorado General Assembly. A copy of his 1999 proposal, which is similar
in many ways to the legislation he presented last year (HB 98-1288), is attached for your
reference.

This bill incorporates most of the suggestions provided by the "water steering
. committee" organized by the Colorado Farm Bureau and Colorado Water Congress. It
also includes proposals from environmental interests and perhaps others. Representative
Smith is scheduled to present this proposal to the House Agriculture Committee on
January 20, 1999. Based on several recent discussions between Representative Smith and
the "water steering committee," it is clear there are still several significant points of
concern that make it difficult to predict the outcome of the House Agriculture Committee
meeting. On your behalf, I supported a motion in the Water Congress State Affairs
Committee this morning to ask for additional time to resolve several important concerns.
Most significant among these concerns are:

· The role of local public water resource agencies and the CWCB in the
organization and recognition of "local planning groups" (page 3, Section
202(1));

· The extent to which ongoing (or recently completed) planning efforts may
qualify for inclusion in this proposed planning and funding process (page 5, .
line 14);

· The use of the CWCB Construction Fund as the source for a 5-10 million
dollar initial transfer into the proposed Water Needs Assessment Account for
actual construction and mitigation (page 9, line II);