Final Minutes
Water Management Committee Conference Call
The Water Management Committee (WMC) conference call began at 1:00 p.m. The WMC Chair reviewed the WMC related items discussed by the Governance Committee during their workshop held August 6-7, 2002.
1) The WMC has been asked to review and comment on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (Service) Instream Flow Recommendations Summary Document. This document identifies how the various Service flow targets will be used and will be referenced by the Program Document. While the document was provided to the WMC in July for informal review, the Chair will resend the document to the WMC for official review and comment.
2) The Governance Committee is reviewing the Nebraska and Wyoming conceptual Depletions Plans for policy reasons regarding "regime of the river" at their September workshop. The WMC review of these plans is on hold pending their availability.
3) The WMC has been asked to draft a preface or introduction for the Program Water Plan, describing the relationship of the documents. The Chair identified that Mike Purcell had drafted a "straw dog" of the preface which he had reformatted to follow the Water Plan outline prepared by the WMC earlier. Mike identified that the language used in the draft preface was carefully taken from other existing program documents to ensure the language was consistent. The goal is to submit the preface to the Governance Committee for approval to be included in the Water Plan.
The WMC proceeded to discuss the draft Water Plan preface. As part of the discussion, the table of contents of the Program "white binder" was discussed with regard to the Water Section and the documents listed therein. The existence of documents for the States' Water Protection Plans was questioned. It was identified that water protection would be accomplished via existing state water law and administration and that this approach had been agreed to by the Governance Committee. The question still remained regarding the completion of the associated water protection milestones. The Executive Director identified that he is in the process of reviewing the status of all the milestones and would send the resulting information to the Chair. It was also agreed to drop the reference to Integration Procedures for Program Water from the table of contents as this is address in other Water Plan documents.
The Water Section heading in the table of contents was also discussed and whether it should be changed to read Program Water Plan. It was noted the table of contents currently serves only to reference the multitude of documents in the "white binder" that will eventually become the Program Document. The terminology for the headings and documents in the table of content is anticipated to undergo further adjustment as the Program Document is developed. It was decided to drop the word "Program" from the heading Program Water Plan and reference it as the Water Plan.
The draft Water Plan preface was reviewed and the suggested changes were incorporated into the document. The WMC discussed the addition of the Service's Instream Flow Recommendations Summary Document into the Water Plan. It was agreed that the Water Plan would be the appropriate place for the Summary Document, however, some reservations regarding the current content of the Summary Document were raised. It was decided to include the Summary Document into the Water Plan with the note, "It is suggested that the following document with modifications be added to the Water Plan. The WMC is presently reviewing and commenting on the June 26, 2002 draft of the document." The Chair will redraft the preface based on the comments and provide it to the WMC for review in anticipation of submitting the preface to the Governance Committee for approval.
The WMC discussed the Instream Flow Recommendations Summary Document. It was decided the Summary Document be further reviewed by the WMC and preliminary comments be provided to the Chair by Friday, September 13, 2002. These comments would be distributed to the WMC prior to a conference call to discuss the Summary Document. The conference call was set for September 16, 2002, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time, pending the availability of Mark Butler. Don Anderson will follow-up with Mark regarding his availability to participate in the September 16 conference call.
It was noted the narrative for the flowchart depicting the Process for Section 7 ESA Consultations for New Water Related Activities was missing and should be included with the flowchart in the "white binder". Don Anderson will provide the narrative for the flowchart to the Chair for distribution.
The Executive Director identified the Technical Committee has been working to develop a biological monitoring and research plan for the lower Platte for the Pallid Sturgeon. He also indicated that the Service has identified the need for additional modeling of hydrology and geomorphology for the lower Platte and he requested the WMC review the plan with respect to the additional analysis of hydrology and geomorphology and related data collection needs. The Chair acknowledged receipt to the request by email earlier and that he would provide the information to the WMC for discussion. Don Anderson reviewed briefly the status of the work to test the assumption for flows in the lower Platte River. Don has been working with Frank Kwapnioski, Mike Drain, Ann Bleed and others to refine and improve the daily streamflow tracking and accounting model developed to evaluate the ability of the Program to affect flows in the lower Platte River ("Phase II and III" of that ongoing effort). Once that is completed, Phases IV and V will be done. It was suggested the Service provide a presentation to update the WMC on the Pallid Sturgeon analysis, prior to responding to the Technical Committee's request.
The conference call adjourned at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time.
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