BOARD02487

• Board Meeting Date: 9/7/1995
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

1996 State Legislation:

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The 1996 session of the Colorado General Assembly will most likely include several water related
bills being introduced. Issues which may be brought before the legislature include changes in
the Instream Flow Statute, compact protection legislation for the Arkansas River, the annual
Construction Fund Bill, amendments to the mineral severance tax law, counties' power to regulate
water development through use of 1042 powers, revisions to the weather modification law, 100
year groundwater depletions in the Denver Basin, and amendments to the export statute, If all
of these issues ripen into legislation we need to begin the process of analyzing our positions. We
will plan to allow time during our January meeting to review any legislation that has been
introduced and to consider formal Board positions, and in some instances we may wish to
propose legislation.

Endangered Soecies Flow Protection:

Although at this meeting we will not be taking any formal action as to amounts or structure of
the water rights to be filed on the Yampa and Colorado Rivers, we must begin to focus our
discussion so that the staff can develop reconunendations for your consideration at the September
26, 1995 workshop and the October 10-11, 1995 meetings in Grand Junction and Craig. The
issues of flow protection for the endangered fish is as far reaching as issues we are facing on the
Arkansas River, and we need to fully engage in the formulation of the policies. I have asked the
staff to propose staff recommendations for the September 26, 1995 meeting, which will include:
level of flows, structure of the applications and water rights, how the flows are to be '.
administered, and what elements should be included in a decree. We cannot have meaningful
discussion with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nor the water user community until more
definite detail and direction is formulated.

Rio Grande River:

We recently met with water users in the Rio Grande Basin for the purposes of developing a plan
for evaluating the reoperation of the Rio Grande Project. At the meeting it was agreed that a
scoping study would be made through a partnership between CWCB, the Rio Grande
Conservancy District, and the Conejos District. A draft Memorandum of Agreement has been
prepared and will be discussed later during the Board Meeting.

Colorado River:

We will be having full discussion of Colorado River issues at this meeting. However, in my
opinion, significant developments with regard to Nevada's position have occurred, Recently at
a presentation in Gunnison, Janet Rogers of the Colorado River Commission of Nevada stated
that Nevada believes any water marketing should be State to State, and that Nevada has enough
water to carry them to 2030 by redirecting internal supplies. Other Colorado River issues include
continued work on the Annual Operating Plan and finalizing the Glen Canyon EIS.

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