SW Basin Roundtable Talks Drought Contingency Planning
The room was packed for the October 10 Roundtable meeting, and drought contingency planning (DCP) was the hot topic. Here's the highlights. For more information, see the Durango Herald's summary.
Brent Newman (CWCB) and Lain Leoniak (Colorado Attorney General) outlined the Upper Basin DCP agreements, which are now available at the CWCB’s website, along with a webinar describing them.
The DCP will serve as an interim agreement until the 2007 Colorado River Interim Shortage Guidelines are renegotiated prior to their expiration in 2026. The goal of the Upper Basin DCP is twofold: avoid compact curtailment and keep Lake Powell from reaching critical elevation 3,525 feet. Should the reservoir fall below that, it would impact power generation and therefore crucial revenues for Colorado project operations.
The three main strategies of the Upper Basin DCP are reservoir reoperations, supply augmentation via cloud seeding and phreatophyte removal, and exploration of a program to reduce consumptive use, a.k.a. demand management. State officials highlighted the outstanding questions around demand management, including how it could work within Colorado’s prior appropriation system, how it might impact lifestyles and communities, and how it would be funded as a voluntary, temporary, and compensated program. At their November meeting, the CWCB will consider adopting a policy to guide investigation of the demand management program. The public was encouraged to reach out to CWCB staff directly with questions. The Southwest Basin Roundtable has done so via a letter to the CWCB.
Southwestern Colorado also weighed in on the DCP effort. On behalf of the Southwestern Water Conservation District, Bruce Whitehead and Beth Van Vurst expressed support for the planning effort, with the need for sideboards regarding any program to reduce consumptive use on the Western Slope. Read a joint letter from the Southwestern Water Conservation District and Colorado River Water Conservation District outlining these concerns. John Currier (River District) summarized the West Slope Risk Assessment, which will help to inform our communities regarding the impacts of any such programs to reduce consumptive use. Phase III of the study delves deeper into basin-specific scenarios, and will allow us to discuss objectively possible water management futures and plan accordingly.
Other Roundtable Tidbits
Army Corps to Address Aquatic Nuisance Species
We heard the good news at the Roundtable: per the 2018 Water Development Act passed by the U.S. Senate on October 10, the US Army Corps of Engineers will establish, operate, and maintain new or existing watercraft inspection stations to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The provision also authorizes the Army Corps to assist states with rapid response efforts in the case of an infestation of quagga or zebra mussels. Should the bill be signed by the president, it will be a major victory for reservoir managers in southwestern Colorado in their efforts to keep the state free of mussels!
Elections and Membership Changes
John Taylor announced he was stepping down from the Roundtable. Mr. Taylor was the Hinsdale County appointment to the Roundtable, and a member since its inception in 2005. Becky Guilliams will be applying to replace him. Ed Tolen was re elected as the at-large representative, Mely Whiting as at-large environmental representative, and Elaine Chick as the Public Education, Participation and Outreach (PEPO) liaison.
Likely Funding Requests for January
With the decline in severance tax revenues, the Roundtable now considers grant requests only in January and July, up to $25,000. However, members did hear from several project sponsors regarding likely requests for 2019. These included Phase II of San Miguel Stream Management Plan, the use of drones for precision agriculture, and repair of the Sheek Ditch in the Mancos River basin.
Upcoming Events
The following events were announced: IBCC meeting at Fort Lewis College on October 18, Water Bootcamp at Animas Grange on November 5, and joint South Slope Roundtables meeting on November 28 in Alamosa. Mark your calendars for next year's meetings: January 9 (Cortez), April 10 (Durango), July 10 (Cortez), and October 9 (Durango). Click here for more Roundtable information on the WIP website.
Summaries submitted by Laura Spann, SW Basin Roundtable Recorder
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The Interbasin Compact Committee to Meet for the First Time in SW Colorado
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Forest Health and Watershed Advocacy a Hot Topic
Forest wildfires pose a continuing threat to Colorado’s environment, economy, and water supply. The Forest Health Advisory Council (FHAC) put together a Call to Action: Standing Together to Improve Forest Health. It stated that destructive wildfire events in 2018 are part of a long-term downward spiral that can only be reversed by decisive, well-coordinated action involving post-fire response and the application of lessons learned to restore forest health. Creating forest conditions which allow fire to play its natural role in reducing fuel loading and restoring resilience too our forests will require coordinated actions.
Elaine Chick, WIP Program Manager, spoke with Mike Preston, General Manager Dolores Water Conservancy District and Chair, Southwest Basin Roundtable, about Forest Health and what is being done with the various entities in Colorado regarding watershed protection, forest health and wildfire issues.
Elaine: Mike, there is a big concern about the recent wildfires and drought that has people really thinking about forest health. You are very involved with this topic, can you explain what actions are being taken regarding this?
Mike Preston: “Yes there is! I moderated a panel last year at Water Congress and we had a large turnout. Out of that panel grew an effort for a group to focus on Forest Health."
“The intent here is to build an advocacy group and broaden the base of support. The Colorado Water Congress board looked at what they could contribute and came up with perusing and alliance similar to what has been set up in California. From the Forest Health Advisory Council, which is set up by the state legislature, we can make policy recommendations to the State Forester and can also make recommendations or provide information to the legislature. While members of the Forest Health Advisory Council hold positions that constrain political advocacy, the alliance that is being formed can actively provide that advocacy as needed."
"At this years Water Congress on August 22, 2018, we had an Open Tent Meeting around the forest health topic. It was proposed that the following five entities explore the creation of an alliance to increase the level of advocacy for water shed protection and forest health," explained Preston.
They are:
- Club 20
- Colorado Ag Water Alliance
- Colorado Water Congress
- Colorado Timber Industry Association
- The Nature Conservancy
They believe it is important to accelerate the pace and expand the scale of forest management and restoration. If the new alliance is created they would work to increase federal, state, local and private funding sources for forest watershed management; craft policy and legislative reforms to promote improvements on forest restoration activities; and advance monitoring and research to improve the state of scientific knowledge about forest health. The goal is to collaboratively work and add leverage to existing entities and not compete with them.
Mike Preston added, "each of the entities on the list stepped forward at the meeting and expressed interest to be involved. Questions arose regarding governance, funding, and avoiding redundancy with existing efforts."
“The benefit of the 5 members helps strengthen the political advocacy for forest health. Discussion opened to the floor, and a point came up that Club 20 is a west slope organization, and the front range did not have equal representation. One of the recommendations coming out of the Forest Health Advisory Council is to find Front Range representation that maintains equal representation with Club 20. The other question that came up was how to represent recreation in a group like this,” stated Preston.
“The big water providers on the front range have a large base of rate payers that help to provide adequate revenues to directly fund forest health and source water protection. The West slope doesn’t have large water providers with that size of rate payers, so our funding for forest health will be driven by the ability and value of the commercial products that can be produced. That’s one of the challenges we face.”
“There really is a lot at stake. The Forests Health Advisory Council’s “Call to Action” defines the problem and and what needs to be done, and we took this to the Big Tent meeting at the Water Congress for discussion,” he concluded.
FHAC’s Call to Action areas identified include:
- The development and support of local forest health collaboratives. We have three collaboratives, the Dolores Watershed Resilient Forest Collaborative (DWRF) on the west end, the San Juan Headwaters Partnership on the east end and Animas River Community Forum.
- The development of landscape-scale national environmental policy act (NEPA) planning and forest plans by the USFS that expand prescribed fire, thinning and logging aimed at improved forest health and asset management.
- The coordination of forest health and asset management activities across federal, state and private land boundaries.
- The expansion and development of wood products businesses that can produce enough commercial value to finance the removal of fuels from overly dense forests at the expanded scale of the treatments that will be required to improve forest health.
- The expansion of the capacity of the state of Colorado to address forest health.
- The expansion of the capacity of the federal government to address forest health.
- The creation of a Colorado alliance for forest health and watershed advocacy.
We will keep updating information on the collaboration of the advocacy groups as they progress.
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The WIP lending library has more than 200 water-related books and videos available for checkout. Stop by the office to find a book or DVD of interest to you.
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