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Rick Brown will be presenting an update on SWSL A brochure can be downloaded at the NWR website at www.nwra.org.!2005wws Statewide Tamarisk Control: Board staff continues to work with the Tamarisk Coalition to involve local water users in tamarisk control discussions. The Coalition is also tracking and supporting proposed federal legislation that would establish several demonstration control projects throughout the west with US Department of Interior funding. Work has begun with the Coalition conducting inventory efforts utilizing the $50,000 of cost share funds provided by the Board. Inventories will be conducted this year on the Arkansas, Purgatoire, Yampa, and Colorado mainstem this summer. The Arkansas River Conservancy District, which maintains the levee structure at the City of Las Animas, has requested a US Army Corps of Engineers study of an environmental restoration on the Arkansas in the reach protected by the levee focusing on tamarisk removal and we will coordinate with our flood mitigation responsibilities. A similar Corps project with the City of Grand Junction in Mesa County in cooperation with the Tamarisk Coalition has been recently completed. Staff will be seeking additional discussions with EDO on coordination and definition of respective DNR agency roles in the statewide tamarisk control effort as presented in the DNR 10 Year Plan. Floodplain Rules and Regulations - Public Comment Opportunity: The CWCB received its flood protection responsibilities in 1937, and its initial authority to review, designate, and approve floodplains in 1966. In support of the floodplain designation process, the CWCB conducted rulemaking during late 1987 and early 1988 in order to promulgate rules and regulations entitled "Rules and Regulations for the Designation and Approval of Floodplains and of Storm and Floodwater Runoff Channels in Colorado." (1988 Rules and Regulations) The 1988 Rules and Regulations have served the Board very well over the years. Colorado entities and their study contractors have understood the need to comply with these Floodplain Rules for use on floodplain studies in order to receive Board approvaL CWCB staff, consulting engineers, floodplain managers and other interested parties have realized the need to revise the 1988 Rules and Regulations due to a number of factors that have materialized since 1988. Those factors include such things as changes in federal policies and mandates; technological advances in modeling techniques, GIS, and digital mapping; and flood related issues such as debris flows, erosion hazards, alluvial fan hazards, post-wildfire hydrology, stormwater detention, and ice jam flooding that were previously not addressed. The CWCB Operating Principles (presented to the Board at the July 2004 CWCB meeting in Delta) served as objectives and guiding language for the preparation of the amended rules and regulations, newly entitled "Rules and Regulations for Regulatory Floodplains in Colorado" (Amended Floodplain Rules). The Amended Floodplain Rules will provide the necessary changes to keep them in line with the current industry standards and guidelines. This will also provide Colorado communities with better and 10