The Interbasin Compact Commission (IBCC) requested that the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) develop a toolbox to help roundtables incorporate nonconsumptive needs into their Basin Implementation Plans. This is a resource document for the roundtables and other stakeholders and brings many documents and technical work together in one place. The draft report is available online at:

http://cwcbweblink.state.co.us/weblink/0/doc/170187/Electronic.aspx?searchid=ee0c3336-ec13-43aa-8b81-460b87f065af.

In early December representatives from the State’s Basin Roundtables met in Silverthorne to discuss methods to increase conservation efforts. This has been a point of contention between the Front Range and Western Slope.

At their March meeting, the Interbasin Compact Committee (IBCC) looked closely at how the roundtables have used a planning tool that incorporates agricultural transfers, conservation, identified projects, and new projects. While the IBCC worked with the Colorado Water Conservation Board to develop the tool, members think it’s time to move ahead.

A Statewide Roundtable Summit was conducted in Broomfield on March 1^st. There were attendees representing each of Colorado’s river basins. The purpose of the summit was to discuss plans and ideas for solving the water-supply gap that’s expected because of the state’s rapid population growth.

A state water plan would not mean all the conflicts with water would disappear. But it would provide the state’s top water officials a more balanced frame of reference as problems crop up. Three years of work will culminate, possibly as soon as May, as the Interbasin Compact Committee gets the final assessment of its portfolio tool from basin roundtables. Gov.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, state officials and water experts from all corners of Colorado stressed Thursday that the state’s water plans for the future — whatever they may be — must find ways to avoid drying up agricultural land.

Trying to get Colorado to understand the “water-food nexus” could require social media, bicycle tours or even shuttle diplomacy. On the other hand, the Colorado basin roundtable process might do the trick, Gov. John Hickenlooper told about 300 people Thursday at the Colorado Roundtable Summit.

After seven years of meetings, the Interbasin Compact Committee appears ready to do something about the state’s municipal water gap. In preparation for a summit of the state’s nine basin roundtables today, the IBCC looked closely at how the roundtables have used a planning tool that incorporates identified projects, conservation, new projects and agricultural transfers.

The Southwest Basin Roundtable (SBR) conducted their last quarterly meeting of 2011 on October 12^th in Cortez. In addition to discussion of Roundtable business, to include fund balances both at the local and state levels, two new SBR representatives were elected.