Final Minutes
Water Action Plan Committee Meeting
The Water Action Plan Committee (WAPC) meeting began at 8:20 a.m. in Sterling, Colorado. The minutes of the March 22, 2000, WAPC meeting were approved. The States will be holding a meeting after the WAPC meeting beginning at 1:00 p.m.
After the agenda was reviewed, Boyle Engineering described the major changes from the previous draft of the Water Action Plan. Revision No. 3 of the draft Water Action Plan ("draft Plan") incorporates the States' Water Action Plan Principles; the Executive Director's summary of the process for advancing projects; the States' summary of their anticipated tracking and accounting procedures; and many of the narrative comments provided by Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Central Nebraska Public Power & Irrigation District (Central). Revision No. 3 of the draft Plan shows a total yield of the potential projects to be 56,300 acre-feet. Boyle identified they are in the process of reviewing and incorporating the applicable information that Central provided via a report entitled, Depletion Mitigation Study Phase I dated March 20, 2000, prepared by HDR Engineering.
The WAPC Chair identified that Colorado had provided comments regarding the process to advance projects and an implementation schedule for Tamarack Phase 3 on April 24, 2000. The WAPC Chair asked Dale Strickland and Kent Holsinger to work together to incorporate Colorado's comment regarding the process to advance projects. The Tamarack Phase 3 implementation schedule will be provided to Boyle for inclusion in the next draft Plan, which will be Revision No. 4. It was noted the Water Management Committee (WMC) does not anticipate providing additional revisions to the States' summary of their anticipated tracking and accounting procedures. The WAPC Chair asked the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) Manager if the tracking and accounting procedures were sufficient for use in the Programmatic EIS. The EIS Manager anticipates the tracking and account procedures will be adequate, but will notify the WAPC Chair promptly if not.
The WAPC environmental representatives (Dave Sands and Dan Luecke) voiced concerns regarding (opposed) including a forest management alternative on the Water Action Plan and asked that it be removed. A discussion of forest management followed. The States expressed concerns that forest management plans may lead to new depletions or have changed the baseline flows over time with regard to runoff. It was suggested the evaluation of forest management plans would more appropriate under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, than to include an alternative regarding forest management in the Water Action Plan.
After a break from 9:45 a.m. to 10:05 a.m., Mr. Sands proposed the following draft language that could be added to the Water Action Plan to ensure the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) will be responsible for new water depletions resulting from forest management plans through the Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
"In the review of future amendments to USFS management plans, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service will establish a review criterion that no forest management plan or USFS action will lead to new depletions or a reduction in runoff from forest lands adversely affecting target flows or Program Projects for Threatened and Endangered Species."
Ralph Morgenweck of the USFWS indicated such a criterion would be appropriate and he would report to the WAPC on consultations with the USFS, after such consultations occurred.
Kent Holsinger of Colorado offered the following draft language to preface Mr. Sands' paragraph.
"U. S. Forest Service (USFS) vegetation and land management may affect flows in the North, South, and Central Platte basins. Further study is required to determine these impacts and the USFS's responsibility to address these impacts."
The WAPC agreed to remove the forest management alternative from the Water Action Plan and insert the language above into the Water Action Plan. The draft language will be distributed by the WAPC Chair to the WAPC for review and comment.
Wyoming expressed concern regarding the use of the term "regime of the river" on page 73 of the Water Action Plan. The language in the Water Action Plan was revised by striking the last two sentences under the section Third Party Impact Considerations on page 73 and adding the phase ", but needs further evaluation." to the end of the first sentence of the section.
The WAPC discussed how to meet the minimum formulation goal for the Water Action Plan of 60,000 acre-feet. With the removal of the forest management alternative, the yield is approximately 56,100 acre-feet. Nebraska offered potential increases in the amount of water under the Water Management Incentives and Net Controllable Conversed Water Alternatives to bring the yield of the Water Action Plan to 62,600 acre-feet. Nebraska noted further evaluation and consideration is still being done and may result in changes in the list of Nebraska alternatives and their yields prior to the final Water Action Plan. The yield of the Water Action Plan and three States' projects (Pathfinder Modification, Kingsley Environmental Account, and Tamarack Phase 1) is approximately 142,600 acre-feet, assuming the three States projects yield approximately 80,000 acre-feet. The EIS Manager was asked to evaluate the cumulative yield of the Water Action Plan projects and three States projects using the EIS models. Under the current schedule, the evaluation needs to be provided to Boyle on May 4, for incorporation into Revision No. 4 of the draft Plan. Boyle will meet with the EIS Team on Friday regarding assumptions to be used in EIS models.
Next, the schedule for preparing the Water Action Plan Report was discussed. Revision No. 4 of the draft Plan is scheduled for distribution to the WAPC on May 8. An WAPC conference call will be held on May 16 at 9:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight-Savings Ttime (10:00 a.m. Central Daylight-Savings Time) to discuss Revision No. 4. The draft Water Action Plan Report will be presented to the Governance Committee at their May 25, 2000, meeting. It is anticipated the States will hold public meetings regarding the draft Water Action Plan Report in June, with a final version to be presented to the Governance Committee at their June 29 meeting. The final Water Action Plan is anticipated to be provided to the EIS Team the first week of July (refer to the proposed schedule shown below).
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Comment Period Revision No. 3 of the Draft Report |
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Prepare Draft Report Revision No. 4 |
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Draft Report Revision No. 4 to WAPC |
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Conference Call with WAPC for Approval (9 a.m. MDST) |
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Present Draft Report (Rev. No. 4) to GC |
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Transmit Draft Report Revision No. 4 to EIS Team |
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Public Meetings by 3 States Regarding Draft Report |
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Finalize the Draft Water Action Plan Report / Present to Governance Committee |
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Transmit Final Water Action Plan Report to EIS Team |
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The WAPC Chair discussed an analysis he is preparing that will estimate the cost of potential projects identified in the draft Water Action Plan based on a variable implementation schedule. When the analysis is completed, it will be provided to the WAPC for information.
A revised principle matrix that incorporates the latest information provided by the States has been compiled. There are still some blanks to be filled in. The WAPC will contact the WAPC state representatives, as needed, to assemble the missing information.
It was announced that the new USFWS's Platte River Coordinator is Mark Butler.
The meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
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