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<br />. . <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />contingency plans. The bill also extends authority for drought-related activities through FY 2001. <br />Further, the bill defines as non-reimbursable site remediation work under the Departmental Irrigation <br />Drainage Program. There is $38.3 million for Central Valley Project (CVP) Improvement Act programs <br />and projects and habitat restoration, improvement and acquisitions, to be appropriated from a special <br />fund. <br /> <br />Project specific provisions include a $2.8 million increase in the authorized amount for the <br />Minidoka Project in Idaho for the North Side Pumping Division, authorization to assess and collect <br />annually $540,000 from CVP water and power contractors to be paid to the Trinity Public Utilities <br />District, a prohibition on expending any funds for the closure of the old Auburn Dam site in California, <br />and a conditional prohibition on the expenditure of funds to purchase or lease water in the Middle Rio <br />Grande or the Carlsbad Projects in New Mexico. The bill appropriates $47 million for necessary <br />expenses for policy development and administration within the Office of the Commissioner, <br />Reclamation's Denver Office and its five regional offices. It also appropriates $8.9 million for the Small <br />Reclamation Projects Act program for direct loans and/or grants. (Story from WSWc newsletter.) <br /> <br />Statewide Issues <br /> <br />Recreation Flows: The "Subcommittee" created by the Board in July to examine the issues <br />surrounding water rights applications for boat chutes has met twice. Subcommittee Chair Eric <br />Wilkenson has discussed this issue at length with our staff, the State Engineer's Office and the Attorney <br />General's office. A paper outlining additional issues for consideration and proposed recommendations is <br />expected to be prepared by November when this subject may next be presented to the Board for a <br />decision. Eric may brief you more fully at your meeting. <br /> <br />Dam-site Information Sent to Local Planners: On Sept. 5 an inventory of potential reservoir <br />sites was sent to county planning entities. The inventory was based on a review of the State Engineer's <br />tabulation of conditional storage water rights and a review of over 35 published water resource <br />development studies and reports. In addition, several federal agencies, water conservancy districts, <br />Division Engineers, and consulting engineers were contacted for their input. The inventory does not <br />include every potential reservoir site, and it is not intended to identify the total land area that should be <br />reserved for a reservoir site. The inventory was created by converting a dBase chart with the locations of <br />proposed water projects to an access spreadsheet. The map coordinates were converted to GIS by the <br />Colorado Geological Survey. Using this GIS information, individual county maps were produced. We <br />are in the process of making more maps and in the meantime, we will be providing a statewide map and <br />the spreadsheet to anyone who requests it. <br /> <br />We hope local planners will use the infonTIation when confronted with decisions to permit <br />development in areas where water storage facilities could be located. <br /> <br />We also sent copies of the draft river basin "fact sheets" and the "Planning for Drought." Booklet <br />(that contains historical information about past droughts for each river basin and some general <br />recommendations) to each county. We will bring extra copies of these materials to your meeting. This <br />information is also available via the Internet at www.cwcb.state.co.us. <br /> <br />Great Outdoors Colorado Grant Application: On September 14, 2000, an application was <br />submitted to Great Outdoors Colorado (GOcO) by the cWcB, Trout Unlimited and CDOW for a grant <br />to fund an instream flow needs assessment. The final application incorporated the ideas, suggestions and <br />addressed you expressed in July in Gunnison. This project, if funded by GOcO, will provide <br />information for identifying streams that could benefit from instream flow protection. <br /> <br />The project is composed of three major parts: (1) compiling existing data and incorporating the <br />data into a geographical information system (GIS), (2) an advisory team to choose three pilot watersheds <br /> <br />4 <br />