Final Minutes
Water Action Plan Committee Meeting
February 23, 2000
The Water Action Plan Committee (WAPC) meeting began at 9:30 a.m. in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The minutes of the January 20, 2000, WAPC meeting were approved with corrections. It was announced the States of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming would be meeting at 2:00 p.m. regarding the Water Action Plan and the WAPC meeting would end early.
The meeting began by reviewing the comments provided by the WAPC members regarding Boyle's draft Water Action Plan Memorandum ("Boyle draft Memo"). The WAPC Chair provided the comments received to Blaine Dwyer of Boyle Engineering on February 22 by facsimile. Nebraska's comments were reviewed first. Nebraska restated the need to reserve up to 50% of the yield from certain potential projects to offset future depletions (the Boyle draft Memo only reflects 30% reservation). A reservation of 50% reduces the sum of the potential projects' individual yields from approximately 70,600 acre feet to 54,100 acre feet of average target flow shortage reduction, resulting in the goal of 60,000 to 80,000 acre feet to be unsatisfied. Further it was noted the associated costs shown in the Boyle draft Memo would be reduced and, for now, it could be assumed that Nebraska would bear 50% of the cost to implement those potential projects with a 50% reservation. Due to the limited time and length of other discussions, not all comments were reviewed at the meeting.
The WAPC discussed how this shortfall in the goal could be satisfied. Nebraska indicated the yield of the net controllable conserved water that will be available to the Program will be known in June 2000, and they may consider, as an additional potential project, the lining of Sutherland Reservoir. Concern was expressed the future depletion plans will take away water available for the Program. Dan Luecke indicated the environmental community does not believe a water action plan formulated for only 60, 000 acre feet meets the commitment. Considerable discussion regarding how/where additional water could be obtained followed. Nebraska is limiting their contributions under the Water Action Plan to 23,500 acre feet plus the amount for the net controllable conserved water. This amount may or may not be adjustable based on the results of future/ongoing studies. The WAPC Chair encouraged the states to discuss this matter further at their 2:00 p.m. meeting.
The WAPC discussed the interaction of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)/Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluation and the Water Action Plan. Concern was expressed regarding the need to ensure the projects identified in the Water Action Plan provided sufficient yield to satisfy the 60,000 to 80,000 acre feet goal. Otherwise, an amendment to the Programmatic EIS may be required. It was suggested the Water Action Plan include ranking of the potential alternatives by dependability and discuss the criteria used; include a discussion of the process of project implementation, and qualitatively discuss potential third party affects.
The level of detail needed for the Water Action Plan was also discussed. It was noted that third party effects were being handled by the EIS Team in their evaluation. The WAPC's goal is to:
Formulate, at a reconnaissance level, a draft Water Action Plan that will satisfy the Program Goal of 130,000 to 150,000 acre feet on average of target flow shortage reduction that the Governance Committee can provide to the EIS Team to be evaluated as the water component of the proposed Program by May 15, 2000.
Voting by the WAPC was briefly discussed. A charter for the WAPC has not been developed, but it was noted the WAPC has tried to operate using a consensus approach.
It was noted that Boyle's draft Memo contains only the list of potential projects with the available information needed by the EIS Team for evaluation in the EIS models and is only a piece of the Water Action Plan. A draft of the Water Action Plan outline is needed so people will know what will be included in the Water Action Plan. By Consensus of the WAPC, Boyle Engineering was instructed to proceed with the development of a draft Water Action Plan Report.
After a break from 11:20 a.m. to 11:40 a.m., the meeting continued with Duane Stroup and Mark Butler of the EIS Team presenting the preliminary evaluation results of the potential projects in Boyle's draft Memo. The EIS Team's evaluation tried to match the information and project operation identified in the Boyle draft Memo, with the exception of the Dawson/Gothenburg recharge project which was not included in the evaluation. After reviewing the basic assumptions made for the evaluation to model some of the projects, the procedure used to model the projects in Boyle's draft Memo was described. The three State projects (Pathfinder Modification - Wyoming, Tamarack Plan - Colorado, and Lake McConaughy Environmental Account - Nebraska) were evaluated first and determined to provide a "score" of 80,000 acre feet. Then, the projects identified in the Boyle draft Memo were activated in the models.
The preliminary results showed the combined yield of all projects to "score" approximately 134,000 acre feet of annual average target flow shortage reduction. The EIS Team did not perform any analysis that would quantify the "score" for the individual projects. However, the WAPC did observe that a cumulative evaluation of the projects (individually summing to 70,600 acre feet) in the Boyle draft Memo results in a reduced yield of approximately 54,000 acre feet (134,000 - 80,000 = 54,000) when evaluated using the EIS models.
Mr. Butler also identified the Central Platte Model has been modified to evaluate the peak pulse flows, but no specific pulse flow releases were simulated in this evaluation. He also identified the South Platte Model has been completed and was used for the Beebe Draw recharge project evaluation. Questions/comments regarding this preliminary evaluation should be addressed to the WAPC Chair, who will forward them to Mr. Butler.
The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
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