Water Management Committee Meeting

The Water Management Committee (WMC) meeting began at 10:30 a.m. at the State Engineer's Office (SEO) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The meeting was relocated from the SEO conference room to room 1299 to accommodate the number of people in attendance. Several stakeholders interested in the water related aspects of the Platte River Cooperative Agreement (Cooperative Agreement) were present to observe the meeting.

The Chairman, John Lawson, welcomed those in attendance to the meeting and establish two open comment periods for the audience: one at 11:30 a.m. and another at 4:30 p.m. After the WMC was introduced and Mike Besson, Director of the Wyoming Water Development Commission and Wyoming's representative on Governance Committee, had provided a brief summary of the Cooperative Agreement and objectives of the first increment of the Recovery Program, the Chairman reviewed with the group the composition of the WMC.

The Governance Committee at their September 12, 1997, meeting appointed the following technical water resources representatives to serve on the WMC.

Jon Altenhofen, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District

Ann Bleed, State of Nebraska

Mark Butler, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mike Drain, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District

Allan Druliner, U.S. Geological Survey

Jim Goeke, Univ. of Nebraska, Conservation Survey Division

Beth Goldowitz, Platte River Trust

John Lawson, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Dan Luecke, Environmental Defense Fund

Frank Kwapnioski, Nebraska Public Power District

Becky Mathisen, State of Wyoming

Dick Stenzel, State of Colorado

John Thorburn, Tri-Basin Natural Resources District

Duane Woodward, Central Platte Natural Resources District

The WMC's primary objectives as identified in the Milestones of the Cooperative Agreement are to hire and direct the work of a consultant to complete a Water Conservation/Supply Reconnaissance Study, develop and implement tracking/accounting procedures for determining the depletion/accretion impacts associated with the components of the Program, and assist the Governance Committee in the formulation of a Water Conservation/Supply Action Plan to be incorporated into the proposed alternative. The WMC focuses on the technical aspects of these objectives and provides technical recommendations to the Governance Committee. Issues identified by the WMC that require policy decisions are directed to the Governance Committee.

Decisions by the WMC are by consensus, meaning a general agreement or consent has been reached among the members. If consensus cannot be reached by the WMC members, the WMC prepares major and minority reports to the Governance Committee. Opinions differing from the WMC members by individuals participating in the WMC meetings will be expressed to the Governance Committee by the WMC Chairman.

Kurt Bucholz, who has been participating in the WMC meetings since approximately April 15, questioned if he was a member of the WMC. The Chairman responded that he was not a member and only those identified at the Governance Committee's September 12, 1997, meeting are recognized as official members. Further, additional members must be appointed to the WMC at the direction of the Governance Committee and the Chairman does not control who is appointed to the WMC. However, the Chairman has welcomed the participation of others at the WMC meetings and while Mr. Bucholz is not a member of the WMC, he has been treated equally. To date, the participation of other interested individuals has been beneficial. Future participation of other interested individuals will be allowed provided the WMC is able to function and meet its objectives as identified in the Cooperative Agreement.

Mr. Bucholz identified himself as the only true stakeholder participating on the WMC and he was not being paid for his participation as were the WMC members. He asked about the reimbursement of expenses for participation. The Executive Director, Dale Strickland, responded that he had prepared a draft Personal Expense Reimbursement Policy and reimbursement under that policy was only for out of pocket expenses for individuals specifically requested to serve on one of the committees by that Committee's Chair. Reimbursement of lost wages is not included in the policy.

The WMC Chairman will clarify with the Governance Committee at their September 2 meeting the process for obtaining membership in the WMC.

The meeting agenda was distributed to all in attendance and reviewed. The schedule of upcoming WMC meetings was also reviewed. It was also explained that the WMC's current schedule is driven by the Cooperative Agreement, which identifies the Water Conservation/Supply Reconnaissance Study (Study) and its schedule for completion. Information from that Study is needed by the Platte River Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Office for the evaluation of the Program. The Platte River EIS Manager, Curt Brown, was introduced and the September 2 EIS Public meeting was announced.

At 11:30 a.m. the Chairman opened the meeting for public comment. The comments received are summarized below.

• Slow down the fast track schedule: move schedule of WMC back.

• Change meeting times, stakeholders are busy in the fall and are unable to participate.

• WMC membership does not contain adequate stakeholders: need more stakeholders on the WMC.

• Need more representation of agriculture on the WMC.

• Wyoming water users should be made aware of WMC meetings.

• Is the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) WMC member a technical person? (Concerned that EDF is more political than technical.)

• Ranchers and farmers should be listed as threatened and endangered species.

• 1945 Decree can be used as a valuable resource.

• The process cannot be trusted because stakeholders are not represented.

• Willing seller questioned: Concerned that water will be taken from non-willing sellers.

• Only WMC members should be allowed to sit at the table.

• Endangered Species Act (ESA) should not be put ahead of constitution: water is already legally apportioned.

• Losses must be justly compensation for as per the 5th Amendment.

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife target flows need to be technically reviewed and not just accepted.

• Future water needs of small towns along the North Platte River must be given equal consideration in the process.

• Every irrigation district needs to be represented on the WMC.

• The central discomfort of the public is the Governance Committee is not justly representing valuable resources with respect to agriculture and the associated stakeholders.

• It has been stated that the WMC is a technical committee, but the WMC's recommendations to the Governance Committee will most likely be followed. The WMC must remember to consider potential effects their recommendations could have on stakeholders.

• Adverse effects are already occurring. Water users are having to pay depletion charges to store water.

• The loss factors developed by the WMC need to be technically reviewed.

• Why was the Water Conservation/Supply Study consultant asked not to talk with outside people? This should be an open process.

• At a water right transfer case, a ruling was made stating that any rancher with 25 years experience could serve as a technical witness. Many individuals in the audience are technically qualified to serve on the WMC.

• Kurt Bucholz should be appointed to the WMC as an official member.

Mr. Bucholz requested that agenda item No. 6 regarding the Time Period Justification and agenda item No. 4 regarding the draft Long List of Alternatives be discussed immediately following the lunch break.

After a lunch break from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., the meeting continued with the revised agenda. Mr. Bucholz asked the WMC to postpone further general committee meetings until November 17, so the stakeholders would be able to participate. The WMC is concerned that postponing the WMC meetings will delay the process. The Chairman will convey this request and the WMC concerns to the Governance Committee at their September 2 meeting. The October 6 WMC meeting will be held as scheduled, unless the Chairman is directed otherwise by the Governance Committee. WMC workshops with the consultant are not affected by this request and will be held as scheduled.

The WMC discussed the Time Period Justification (Justification) next. The Justification was written to document the reasons why the WMC selected the time period of 1975 through 1994 as a screening criterion to evaluated the viable water conservation/supply alternatives. Comments regarding the Justification were received from Frank Kwapnioski and Kurt Bucholz. Copies of the revised Justification showing the insertions and deletions were distributed to the WMC. The changes were reviewed and discussed.

Mr. Bucholz expressed concern that the 1975-1994 time period would not adequately demonstrate an alternatives response to sequential dry years, like those experienced in the 1950s. The last sentence on page 1, third paragraph in the Justification that reads, "In the final development of the Water Conservation/Supply Action Plan, the ability of alternatives to perform well during drought periods should be considered." was changed to read, "In the final development of the Water Conservation/Supply Action Plan, the ability of alternatives to perform well during drought periods must be considered."

Mr. Bucholz also questioned the use of precipitation stations to justify the use of the 1975-1994 time period, especially when much of the water resources are influenced from snowmelt in the upper reaches. The third sentence on page 2, last paragraph in the Justification that reads, "Precipitation at these ten locations is representative of the hydrologic conditions which influence river baseflows and local gains and losses." was changed to read, "Precipitation at these ten locations is representative of the local hydrologic conditions which influence river baseflows, gains, and losses." Further, the phase "but is not as relevant when local gains are being considered" at the end of the first sentence at the top of page 3 was stricken.

With these revisions, it was the consensus of the WMC members to submit the Time Period Justification to the Governance Committee for approval.

Mr. Bucholz is concerned that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has not identified a time period to judge the success of the Progam. It was explained that once a project is scored (the average annual reductions to the target flows determined) by the Service, the scoring for that project is not revisited in the future.

The W14-1 Subgroup is still working to develop loss factors identified in the 2nd bullet under Milestone W14-1. Loss factors will be developed for each month for the 1975 through 1994 time period. The question was raised if these loss factors were going to be peer reviewed. Once the W14-1 Subgroup has completed developing the factors, the factors will be reviewed by WMC. The decision to seek for an outside peer review of these factors has not yet been addressed by the WMC. Information regarding the development of the loss factors can be obtained from the W14-1 Subgroup Chairman, Jon Altenhofen.

Blaine Dwyer of Boyle Engineering provided a status of the Water Conservation/Supply Study. The draft Long List of Alternatives has been regrouped into 15 categories. Also, the additional information requested by the WMC regarding the definition, cost, and potential yield of the alternatives was included, if available. This information should be considered preliminary as it was taken directly from other references and may not be applicable to the Platte River Basin. It was noted that transbasin diversions were left off this version of the draft long list. Based on the direction received from the Governance Committee at the September 2 meeting, transbasin diversions will either be on or off the draft Long List of Alternatives. Any additions to the draft Long List of Alternatives should be provided to the Chairman. The Chairman will distribute the draft Long List of Alternatives to the WMC members and participants and the interested stakeholders.

In response to an earlier comment regarding limiting who the consultant could talk to, the Chairman clarified that a process was established for the consultant to contact individual irrigation districts to collect information. The process is documented in the minutes of the August 12, 1998, workshop. Public information regarding the Study, will be provided by the WMC.

Mr. Dwyer provided copies of the agendas for the upcoming WMC workshops on Screening Criteria and Third Party Impacts. The Chairman will distribute them to the WMC.

The WMC has been requested to hold a series of third party impacts listening sessions similar to the session held by Land Committee to solicit public input regarding water related third party impacts. This topic will be added to October 6 meeting agenda for further discussion. Another agenda item for the October 6 meeting is peer review for the Milestone W14-1.

Mr. Dwyer handed out a memorandum that summarized existing water supply systems and uses in the Platte River Basin and asked the WMC to review it. This characterization of the Basin will be used as background information in the report. The Chairman will distribute the memorandum to the WMC. Comments are due to the Chairman in 30 days.

Mr. Dwyer handed out a memorandum documenting the selection of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Blaney Criddle Method to calculate Consumptive Use (CU) for the Study. Mr. Altenhofen reminded the WMC that the consultant was also asked to prepare a memorandum documenting the Streamflow Depletion Factors (SDF) Method for analyzing the stream/ground water interaction. Further, as part of the report, an evaluation matrix of the advantages/disadvantages of the methods discussed at the CU and Hydrologically Connected Ground Water Workshop on August 11 needed to be prepared. This information will be prepared by the consultant and provided to the Chairman.

The next order of business was to approve the minutes for the July 21, August 11, and August 12 meetings. The Outreach Committee has prepared a Web Site (http://www.Platteriver.org) that the committee can use to post meeting schedules, minutes, and other information. The WMC discussed whether draft minutes should be posted and then replace with the final approved minutes. The Executive Director suggested that only approved minutes be posted on the Platte River Web Site. This issue will be taken to the Governance Committee for direction. The minutes of the meetings identified above were approved with the corrections provided by Jon Altenhofen and Duane Stroup. The approved minutes will be posted to the Platte River Web Site.

At 4:30 p.m. the Chairman again opened the meeting for public comment. The comments received are summarized below.

• Greater agriculture representation is needed on the WMC.

• The ESA and Federal Government cannot override the rights of the States.

• The WMC must carefully consider social economic impacts before making recommendations to the Governance Committee.

• The process is moving too fast, slow down.

• More public meetings are needed to receive input for the public.

• The schedule does not provide sufficient time to complete the work.

• The objective of finding 150,000 acre-feet of water without causing impacts is impossible.

• The WMC has a difficult task ahead.

• Please ask the Governance Committee to appoint more stakeholders to the WMC.

• The legal ownership of water is difficult to identify with some types of conservation.

• The WMC should consider alternatives involving weather modification and the use of snow fences.

• A series of water and land related third party impacts meetings should be held throughout the Platte River Basin to solicit public input.

• Third party impacts may be bigger than expected.

• Identify the third party impacts as part of the Study.

After the public comments concluded, the WMC meeting continued. Jon Altenhofen will revise the memorandum regarding the gain/loss factors and provide it to the W14-1 Subgroup. A question was raised about who can participate on subgroups. The current practice is that Subgroups are formed from the WMC members or willing individuals suggested by a WMC member.

The status on the verification of the transmissivity values for the SDF curves in the Missouri Basin States Association (MBSA) Study was given next. Mr. Drain has compared the Transmissivity and SDF Maps with Figure 11 of the Groundwater Atlas of Nebraska (Conservation and Survey Division, 1986) and concluded that values are comparable. Mr. Altenhofen is currently evaluating the transmissivity values in Colorado. Ms. Mathisen will review the transmissivity values in Wyoming.

LandStat Imagery is available for all the states. The WMC needs to address further how imagery will be purchased. The State of Wyoming recently completed a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data base that uses SPOT imagery and has an attributed well coverage for the wells between Whalen Dam and Tri-State Dam that should be available for use.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.