Final Minutes
Water Management Committee Meeting
Cheyenne, Wyoming
The Water Management Committee meeting (WMC) began at 1:00 p.m. in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The agenda was reviewed and the minutes of the October 13, 1999, WMC meeting were approved as revised.
Blaine Dwyer of Boyle Engineering provided a brief status of the Water Conservation/Supply Study. Comments regarding the draft Water Conservation/Supply Reconnaissance Study Report (Report) have been received and are being considered. Approximately 300 comments were provided. The power interference and forest management alternatives received a number of comments. Many of the comments are beyond the Scope of Work for the Water Conservation/Supply Study and identify considerations relating to the formulation of the Water Action Plan. Many of the comments call for additional clarification to the text of the draft Report. Due to the amount of revision to the text, the Report will be reprinted. The final Report will be provided to the WMC Chair for distribution by December 13, 1999, as scheduled.
Some minor corrections to the Water Budget Spreadsheet were identified and made. The revised Spreadsheet will be posted on Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District's (Central) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Site and coordinated through the WMC Chair. A version of the Spreadsheet in Excel 5.0 file format will also be posted, as requested.
Mr. Dwyer identified a meeting is being arranged between Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, Nebraska Public Power District, and EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) Staff to discuss power interference and believes it would be beneficial for a member of the Boyle Team to attend, given the number of comments received on the power interference alternative. Attendance of a Boyle Team member will be addressed at the Water Action Plan Committee (WAPC) meeting.
After a break from 2:50 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., the WMC meeting continued with the Demonstration Project agenda item. The Demonstration Project Process approved by the Governance Committee at their October 15, 1999, meeting was handed out. No demonstration projects are currently before the WMC for consideration. It was identified that Central is working with the Tri-Basin Natural Resources District to develop the Fort Kearney Improvement Project Area (IPA) demonstration project and will bring it forward when ready. Central is also looking at other demonstration projects, including conducting surveys.
Next, the WMC discussed Tracking/Accounting Procedures. Tracking/Accounting Procedures are needed for 1) daily administration of water; 2) system to track new water depletions/accretion; and 3) determination of net affects of program activities. It was identified that under existing water administration, the state can protect and account for the delivery of storage water. However, some of the alternatives identified in the draft Report involve only natural flow. The question of how dry year leasing of natural flow rights could be handled under the states' existing accounting systems was discussed. WMC members from Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming (Dick Stenzel, Ann Bleed, and Becky Mathisen, respectively) agreed to explore what could be done to protect water generated from an alternative such as dry year leasing of natural flow rights within their respective states and to identify the associated problems and report back to the WMC at the December 15, 1999, meeting. Mark Butler from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also agreed to prepare a write-up identifying what would be required to determine compliance for such natural flow type alternatives.
Ann Bleed presented and discussed with the WMC the accounting for conveyance losses between the Wyoming/Nebraska state line and Lewellen for a hypothetical release from Gray Reef in year 1990, using the release information at the state line provided by Becky Mathisen. A copy of the draft Stipulation entitled, Amendment of the 1953 Order Paragraph V., River Carriage Losses was provided to the WMC by Becky Mathisen. This Stipulation, also referred to as the Carriage Loss Stipulation, identifies the daily carriage losses in second-feet for the various section of the North Platte River between Alcova, Wyoming, to Lewellen, Nebraska.
Future WMC meetings will be December 15, 1999, and January 19, 2000. The December 15, 1999, meeting will be held in Lakewood, Colorado, in the Fish and Wildlife Service Building 3rd floor conference room from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The January 19, 2000, meeting will be held at the Quality Inn, in North Platte, Nebraska, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
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