Final Minutes
Water Management Committee Meeting
The Water Management Committee meeting (WMC) began at 9:20 a.m. in Kearney, Nebraska. The agenda was reviewed and the minutes of the September 16, 1999, WMC meeting were approved as revised.
The WMC reviewed and discussed the comments provided by the peer reviewers. The peer review comments were provided to Boyle Engineering on September 24, 1999. The Boyle Team has reviewed the comments and anticipates addressing those comments and any additional comments provided by the WMC, Governance Committee, states, and others. The due date for submittal of comments to the WMC Chair is November 1, 1999. The peer reviewers' comments generally were:
a) critical of some Boyle analyses (some valid/some not valid);
b) critical of information/guidance provided by the WMC; or
c) critical of the presentation of information contained in the draft Water Conservation/Supply Reconnaissance Study Report ("Report").
Significant modifications to the analyses contained in the draft Report due to the comments received from the peer reviewers are not anticipated. The Boyle Team will prepare responses to the peer review comments by revising the text of the draft Report as necessary. If the Boyle Team identifies any significant modifications to the draft Report, they will notify the WMC Chair for consideration and direction. The WMC Chair will frame the WMC's responses to the comments of the peer reviewers directed at the information provided to the WMC and provided to the Boyle Team.
After a lunch break from 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the meeting continued with a discussion of demonstration projects. It was identified that Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (“Central”) is working with the Tri-Basin Natural Resources District (NRD) to develop a proposal/design for the Fort Kearney Improvement Project Area (IPA) demonstration project. The sample demonstration project agreement prepared by Jon Altenhofen was briefly discussed and the comments received by the WMC Chair regarding the sample agreement will be forwarded to Mr. Altenhofen. The Executive Director's proposal to provide technical assistance to the WMC for development of demonstration projects via resources from his office was approved at the September 17, 1999, Governance Committee.
The Executive Director shared with the WMC a proposed process for the development and implementation of potential demonstration projects. The discussion followed the steps outlined in the Executive Director's E-mail message to the WMC Chair dated October 11, 1999. The WMC offered some revisions to the process. The Executive Director was asked to formalize the process with the revisions suggested by the WMC. The formalized process will be presented to the Governance Committee at their October 15, 1999, meeting.
The potential demonstration project proposed by Larry Wells was discussed. The WMC decided not to pursue Mr. Wells' proposed demonstration project at this time noting: the WMC is interested in demonstration projects that provide water for target flow shortage reductions; this proposed demonstration project is potentially within the conjunctive use zone of the river; and this demonstration project is better suited for research regarding confined/unconfined aquifers. The WMC recommends Mr. Wells' demonstration project be forwarded to the Technical Committee for consideration under their research efforts. The WMC Chair, with the assistance of Mr. Altenhofen, will prepare a letter by forwarding the demonstration project to the Technical Committee for consideration. The letter will identify potential research topics of interest to the Technical Committee.
After a break from 3:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., the WMC discussed Track/Accounting Procedures. Becky Mathisen provided a handout showing how a hypothetical release of environmental water would be accounted for, using the current conveyance loss values used in the daily accounting of the North Platte River between Gray Reef Reservoir and the Wyoming/Nebraska Stateline. It is anticipated that Ann Bleed will route the water at the Stateline in Ms. Mathisen's table to the Critical Habitat in Nebraska using Nebraska's current accounting system. The WMC Chair will contact Ms. Bleed regarding providing the results prior to the next WMC meeting.
The WMC recognized the need to focus attention on the development of the Tracking/Accounting Procedures. Currently procedures exist for tracking natural and storage flow in each state. It was noted accounting procedures for the South Platte River from the Colorado/Nebraska Stateline to North Platte, Nebraska, are yet to be developed. Many WMC members believe the existing accounting procedures in each state should be used to track program water contributions, with modification as needed to account for different types of contributed water identified in the Water Action Plan.
Definition of the terms in Milestone W14-1 was discussed. Mike Purcell shared with the WMC his thoughts regarding the terms such as hydrologically connected ground water, existing flow conditions, baseline, etc. The tracking of the environmental water in Lake McConaughy was discussed. Contributions to the Environmental Account (EA) in Lake McConaughy will be tracked. However, the accounting of the water in the EA will only show the total content of water in the EA. The topic of compliance was discussed. Mr. Butler of the Fish and Wildlife Service stated that compliance will be based on the building and operating of a project in the manner agreed upon.
The next WMC meeting will be held November 16, 1999, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the Laramie County Community College from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
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