Day: October 20, 2010

Rio Grande Water Conservation Board meeting recap

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From the Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):

The first water management sub-district board of managers had approved its approximately $1 million budget pending approval from the sponsoring water district, which unanimously approved it on Tuesday. Counties within the first sub-district, lying in the closed basin of the San Luis Valley, will begin collecting fees from sub-district irrigators in 2011…

…the water board approved a mill levy of 2.35, less a temporary reduction of .27 for total mills of 2.08. The water district covers most of the San Luis Valley…

[RGWCD Bookkeeper Amber Pacheco] added that the professional services category includes legal and engineering expenses, and the district anticipates an increase in engineering fees to keep the sub-district process moving forward, not just for the first sub-district but also for the other Valley sub-districts that are forming…

[RGWCD Manager Steve Vandiver] estimated the district would probably have seven sub-districts. The formation of these sub-districts requires attorney and engineering fees that the sponsoring district hopes to recoup once the sub-districts are operational…

RGWCD Board Member Lewis Entz, long time state legislator whose legislation enabled the sub-district process, said the reason he created the legislation was so the San Luis Valley could solve its own problems “rather than let the state engineer do it. We are trying to do it here … We want to solve our own problems.”

[Alamosa resident Leon Moyer] suggested that the district post its proposed budget on the web site in the future, since the budgets he was able to pick up prior to the meeting were not the ones ultimately presented to the board. He said the public needs to have the opportunity to adequately review the proposed budget prior to the budget hearing.

More Rio Grand River basin coverage here.

CWCB: Arkansas Basin decision support system update

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From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

A committee advising state consultants on how to set up the study met Monday. Concerns about whether an existing state model used in other basins or a model more commonly used in several ongoing water studies were expressed. The group also clarified that the state model would be used primarily for planning, while the data in the model could be applied to water management…

Officials from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which is developing the model with the Division of Water Resources, assured the group that the state would not ignore data that is already being collected in other studies. “We’re not telling anybody they have to abandon what they’ve developed,” said Ray Alvarado of the CWCB staff. “We’re not intending to do this in a vacuum. We need this tool, and it’s been used successfully in other basins.” The state has developed decision support systems for the Colorado River and Rio Grande. It is finalizing the support system for the South Platte…

In some ways, the Arkansas River basin study is the most complicated to develop because of exchanges, groundwater interaction and water rights issues. It was delayed because of ongoing litigation with Kansas over the Arkansas River Compact. Alternatives for the Arkansas River basin decision support system would range from $4.5 million to $17.3 million, depending on the level of detail desired, according to a draft report. The final report is expected to be presented to the CWCB in January…

“After we completed a needs assessment last year, our roundtable said the DSS was the most important thing we could do,” said Gary Barber, chairman of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable. “There is a great deal of expectation for what the DSS will do.”

More Arkansas River basin coverage here.