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<br />. <br /> <br />Staffwill be closely monitoring progress and costs on these projects and will provide the Board with <br />periodic updates in the Director's Report. At Board members request more detailed information can be <br />presented under the regular agenda. <br /> <br />Canon City Moves to Join Water Conservancy District: The Canon City Council has voted to <br />support a citizen effort to join the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. The District represents <br />Chaffee and Custer counties and western Fremont County but does not include the communities of <br />Canon City, Florence and Penrose. A citizen-driven petition effort is working to get these communities <br />included in the District. If enough signatures are obtained, a court decree could make the proposal <br />official. <br /> <br />According to Canon City Administrator Steve Rabe, Canon City, Florence and Penrose already are part <br />of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, but the Upper Arkansas District is attractive <br />because it acquires additional, smaller water rights and obtains interest in small storage facilities. <br />Rather than spending funds to build a new storage facility, they would be able to provide water in case <br />of an emergency or extreme drought by leasing water shares in existing resevoirs. <br /> <br />The District is offering to include eastern Fremont County into the district with no up-front cost. The <br />cost to taxpayers would be a small annual property tax that is the equivalent of about $5 per average <br />household. <br /> <br />Lower Ark Conservancy GM Resigns: Julie Scaplo, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley <br />Water Conservancy District for the past 16 months, has resigned to accept a position with the <br />Honeywell Corp. The resignation is effective Aug. 31. <br /> <br />Colorado River Basin <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Colorado River Salinity Control Program: The Forum and Advisory Council will meet in Yuma, <br />Arizona the week of Oct. 18. This will be the first meeting I will chair as the newly elected Chairman, <br />with Dennis Underwood of the Metropolitan Water District of California acting as Vice Chairman. <br /> <br />The Workgroup has begun developing criteria and assumptions for the 2005 Triennial Review and that <br />information along with appropriate model runs will be presented to the Forum. The Forum will be <br />touring the Yuma Desalting Plant during this meeting, and I will have an opportunity to see and hear <br />first hand the basis for the controversies surrounding its restart and role in meeting Basin water supply <br />demands. <br /> <br />Instream Flow "Calls" and Administration: Flows in many streams have continued to decrease <br />across the state. Recently, staff was alerted by the Division Engineers in Water Divisions 4 and 5 that <br />the low flows placed the Board in a position to call for its instream flow rights on the Slate, Crystal, <br />Eagle and East Rivers. As a result, an official written call was placed on the Slate River on Aug. 9, the <br />Crystal River on Aug. 18, the Eagle River on Aug. 19, and the East River on Sept. 1. <br /> <br />On the Slate River, the Board's call resulted in the immediate curtailment of outside irrigation. In <br />addition, the call triggered the release of augmentation water from both Meridian Lake and Meridian <br />Lake Park Reservoir (MLPR) to replace depletions from River Green and Silver Sage subdivisions, <br />respectively. The Meridian Lake release rate was 0.23 cfs and the MLPR release was approximately 1- <br />2 cfs over the reservoir inflow. <br /> <br />On the Eagle River, the Board's ISF right in the reach from Resolution Creek to Homestake Creek <br />dropped below the decreed amount of 15 cfs. As a result a junior exchange, decreed in Case No. <br />95CW348 to fill Eagle Park Reservoir, was curtailed. <br /> <br />9 <br />