BOARD02469

• Board Meeting Date: 7/18/2005
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

thousand dollars. At this time, it is unclear whether the entity will pursue an
RICD water right associated with the park.

The Upper Colorado River Commission Meeting: The Commission met in
Farmington, New Mexico on June 28-29 to tour the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and
some of the fish passage facilities constructed by the San Juan River Recovery
Implementation Program. However, the main purpose of the meeting was to develop a
conceptual operations plan for Lake Powell during severe drought conditions that could
be presented at 7-Basin States meeting on July 6, 2005. A very preliminary conceptual
operation for Lake Powell during sever drought conditions was developed and
subsequently presented at the 7-Basin State meeting on July 6th. This conceptual
operation plan still requires input from the Lower Basin and extensive evaluation before
any public disclosure is made. Further discussion of the proposal may occur at the July
Board meeting.

Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program (CRBSCP): The CRBSC Forum met
in Grand Junction on June 8, 2005. On June 7 the Forum toured salinity control project
activities in the Grand Junction, Delta and Montrose areas providing a good opportunity
to showcase the irrigation improvement efforts made by local water users. The tour was
hosted by Carl Zimmerman of the Colorado State Conservation Board and Marc Catlin of
the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. During the Forum meeting the
proposed Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards was approved for release and
subsequent public input. At the Forum meeting we met the US Commissioner to the
International Boundary and Water Commission ("IBWC"), Mr. Arturo Duran, who gave
a strong commitment to work for the interests of the seven basin states in resolving water
use issues with Mexico pursuant to the International Treaty. The Work Group will meet
twice this summer: July 19-21 in Cortez, and August 30-31 in Salt Lake City. The WG
will be continuing the process of finalizing the Triennial Review for submission to the
state water quality agencies and EP A, considering new project areas and recommending
funding allocations to new and existing project areas, as well as drafting a new report
examining the economic justifications for the program. The continued operation and
potential modification of the Paradox Unit in western Montrose County will also be
evaluated.

Gunnison River Basin

Aspinall Reoperations EIS: The Hydrology Committee for the Aspinall Reoperations
EIS held its first meeting on Thursday, June 30. The USBR gave a presentation on the
RiverWare reservoir operations model it will be using for the EIS process. The next
meeting is scheduled for August 24th and may include a presentation on the CWCB' s
StateMod model for the Gunnison Basin.

June 2005 Update on Aspinall Unit: Reclamation reports that the May unregulated
inflow into Blue Mesa Reservoir was 195,000 acre-feet or 90 percent of average.
Hydrologic conditions in the basin have been drying out during the last few of months.
The basin snowpack has diminished over the last few weeks to just over four inches of
snow water equivalent. Streamflows have not responded very well to the snowpack melt

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