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REPORT ON ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS OF COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD To GOVERNOR STEPHEN L. R. McNICHOlB From L. N. McCLELLAN, Consulting Engineer May 27, 1958 I In accordance with your request I have studied the organization and operations of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. I have discussed its operations with a number of per- sons who are familiar with the Board's activities and I have read the minutes of the meetings of the Board in recent years. After making this review, I have come to the conclusion that the Director's office is understaffed. ORGANIZATION OF DIRECTOR'S OFFICE As presently organized, the Director has to spend a large part of his time attending numerous meetings and on rou- tine administrative matters. There are three Basin inter- agency committees that Colorado is concerned with, each of which holds from six to eight meetings a year. There are the Governor's conferences on water problems, meetings of the Upper Colorado River Commission, National Reclamation Association meetings, the Director has had to appear at hearings at Wash- ington of the Bureau of the Budget and of the appropriation committees of Congress, and many others. As a result of these many demands on his time, the Director apparently has not been able to work as closely as he might have desired with the local water user groups and others interested in water utilization plans and problems. Some of the misunderstandings and lack of local agreement and support for the State's water development plans might have been avoided had there been a closer working arrangement between the Direc- tor's office and the water users at local level. It seems to me that one of the most important func- tions of the Director's office is to confer with the local peo- ple on water problems; explain the Board's policies, problems I and objectives; and get the local people's ideas and sugges- tions as to how they desire to have their local areas devel- oped. It is very important to have local understanding and support for any proposed irrigation development. We have learned from past experiences that we don't get very far in obtaining authorizations for projects or in obtaining appropriations from the Federal Government for construction of projects when there is lack of local support for, or where there is actual local opposition to, the proposed projects.