Final Minutes
Water Management Committee Meeting
The Water Management Committee (WMC) meeting began at 9:30 a.m. in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The minutes of the September 12, 2001, WMC meeting were discussed and approved with corrections. The minutes of the December 14, 2001, WMC conference call were also approved. Agenda items for discussion of Monitoring and Research for the Water Projects and EIS/OPSTUDY Modeling were added.
Jon Altenhofen reviewed with the WMC the work being done to complete the subtask of milestone W6-EXT regarding Tamarack Phase I Daily Operating Criteria. The EIS Team needs a written description of Tamarack's operations outlining how Colorado will operate Tamarack. Altenhofen is working to summarize the criteria contained the Tamarack spreadsheet to provide the needed frame work description of Tamarack's operations to complete the subtask. Nebraska questioned Colorado's ground water modeling that determines the accretions input and tracked in the Tamarack spreadsheet and identified the need for further review and discussion of the ground water modeling. Nebraska also identified they are in the process of reviewing/refining the methodology used in their water accounting procedures to distribute the reach losses and the method selected is likely to influence the quantity of Program Water calculated at the habitat. It was noted that the Tamarack spreadsheet distributes losses to the measured inflows at the upstream end of a reach and contains an option to allow positive reach gains to be included in the loss distribution. Even though Nebraska is refining the distribution of losses in their accounting, no delays to the EIS Team's evaluation are anticipated, as the EIS Team will use the best available information in their evaluation.
Altenhofen will prepare a draft description of Tamarack's operations and the Tamarack Subgroup will meet and discuss the draft. On February 11, 2002, the description of Tamarack's operations will be distributed via email to the WMC for review. Dale Strickland will coordinate the email distribution to the WMC. The WMC will hold a conference call on Friday, February 15, 2002, at 1:00 p.m. to discuss the description of Tamarack's Operations. The WMC Chair will report on the status of the subtask to the Governance Committee at their March 4, 2002, meeting.
Next, the WMC discussed Products to be Peer Reviewed, Additional Water Attachments to the Program Document, and Terms for the Glossary. The Chair reviewed the contents of his December 19, 2001, letter to the WMC asking for input from the WMC members regarding these items and noted that no input from the members was received. The Chair also identified that he had offered input to the Executive Director via a letter of January 15, 2002, regarding the list of Program Attachments suggesting the potential elimination of the attachment identified as "Integrated Procedures for Program water" as it appears to be related to the tracking and accounting of Program water. Tracking and accounting of Program water is discussed in the Water Action Plan, Section IV B. Strickland identified that the Glossary will serve to define the terms used in the Program Document and attachments and asked that any other terms be provided directly to him.
The added agenda item regarding Monitoring and Research of Water Projects was discussed. Strickland expressed concern regarding the revised language of the September 12 minutes indicating adaptive management techniques may be employed in the operation/selection of water projects and asked if the revised language conflicted with previous views. Strickland noted that no protocols have been established for the tracking and accounting of Program water and protocols are needed if adaptive management decisions are to be made. The term adaptive management was discussed further, including topics such as the role of a Water Advisory Committee during a Program, structure for the Program, and relationship between the Program and the Environmental Account Manager. It was identified that the term adaptive management was not being used consistently and the language in the September 12 minutes was further revised to read, "However, the operation of the water projects and development/selection of projects from the Water Action Plan may be modified in response to adaptive management recommendations." This language eliminates the need for development of further protocols, yet identifies that adaptive management decisions associated with the habitat may influence the management of Program water.
The added agenda item regarding EIS/OPSTUDY Modeling was discussed. Mark Butler identified that the EIS Team has identified some modeling issues associated with the Central Platte OPSTUDY model that need to be resolved. Butler reminded the WMC that he had worked with a group earlier to discuss/resolve issues regarding the modeling of the districts'(Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District/Nebraska Public Power District) operations. Butler invited the districts, Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, and any others interested in being involved in discussing/addressing the modeling issues to contact him for further information. The Chair clarified that this is not a subgroup of the WMC and asked that the WMC be notified if the model revisions would result in changes to the yield of the water projects.
The membership of the WMC was modified to include Mike Purcell as a co-representative for Wyoming. This action was taken at the request of Wyoming's Governance Committee member, Mike Besson. The chair will seek the Governance Committee's approval for the change in membership at their next meeting (January 17, 2002).
The next WMC meeting will be a conference call on Friday, February 15, 2002. The conference call will start at 1:00 p.m. Mountain Time.
The meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.
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