July 19, 2006 Minutes-Board Meeting

The regular monthly meeting of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District Board of Directors was held on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 10:00 a.m., at 801 Swink Avenue, Rocky Ford, CO 81067.

Chairman Singletary announced a quorum was present.

DIRECTORS PRESENT:
John Singletary-Chairman
Pete Moore-Vice Chairman
Wayne Whittaker-Treasurer
Melissa Esquibel-Secretary
Loretta Kennedy

DISTRICT STAFF:
Jay Winner-General Manager
Bart Mendenhall-Attorney
Kim Chavez-Financial Coordinator
Randa Morlan-Administrative Assistant
Bill Hancock-Conservation Program Manager

MOTION TO ENTER INTO WATER ACTIVITY ENTERPRISE:
Director Esquibel moved that the Board convene into the Water Activity Enterprise, seconded by Director Moore. Motion unanimously carried.

At the conclusion of the Water Activity Enterprise meeting Director Whittaker moved to reconvene the District Meeting at 10:08 A.M., seconded by Director Esquibel. Motion unanimously carried.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS:
Chairman Singletary welcomed each of the visitors to the meeting, asked them to introduce themselves and identify the organization which they represent.

VISITORS PRESENT:
Kevin Karney, Otero County; Del Nimmo, Colorado State University (CSU) - Pueblo/Biology; Ken Weber; Virgil Cochran, Southeastern Land & Environment; Jerry Kenny, HDR Engineering, Inc.; Anthony Mestas, Pueblo Chieftain; Manny Torrez, Fort Lyon Canal; Mike Harris, La Junta Tribune-Democrat; Fred Heckman, Mc Clave; Alan Ward, Pueblo Board of Water Works; Doug Montgomery, City of Lamar; Tom Simpson, Aurora Water; Kelly Roesch, High Plains A&M; Pat Edelmann, USGS; Brenda Fillmore, Arkansas Ground Water Users Association (AGUA).

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

TREASURER'S REPORT:
Director Whittaker reported that the financial report for the month of May was included in the Board's Monthly Meeting Packet. He reported May total revenues of $245,372.83 and total expenditures of $148,924.62. Director Whittaker moved to accept the June Financial Statement, seconded by Director Esquibel and carried unanimously.

GM REPORT:
General Manager Winner introduced Jerry Kenny, HDR Engineering, Inc., to give a presentation the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Leasing Potential and the feasibility investigation he completed.

PRESENTATIONS:

Jerry Kenny - Jerry Kenny, an Engineer for HDR Engineering, gave a speech on the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Leasing Potential and the Preliminary Feasibility. Jerry gave the purpose of the investigation was to provide preliminary estimate of the quantity of agricultural water in the Lower Arkansas River Basin. The key criteria for the investigation gave no consideration to detailed legal or engineering factors such as:

Jerry Kenny identified the sixteen irrigation systems within the area of interest and then gave the reasons for eliminating eight of those systems from the investigations. These reasons included:

The remaining eight systems that were investigated were:

Jerry Kenny used representative years of wet 1997, average 1975, dry 1972, and extreme dry 2002 and performed analyses with three scenarios considered: no limits, remove pure cycle shares from Fort Lyon, and remove pure cycle shares and Fry-Ark water from Ft. Lyon.

After doing the math, Jerry Kenny concluded:

A brief question and answer period was held after the speech.

H20 Jo - H2O Jo is a children's educational video about water quality. Kim Chavez did a grant for this video and it will be put on the District website at http://www.lavwcd.org. This video will also be shown to elementary students as District staff goes to the Lower Arkansas Valley schools and gives presentations on water conservation and quality.

GM REPORT:
General Manager Winner stated that the presentation with CSU Pueblo is moving forward. Pueblo City Council and Pueblo County Commissioners are going to have a meeting with CSU to see the presentation. Much like the video of H2O Jo, they will discuss a water quality study that will identify what is getting into the storm sewers.

General Manager Winner discussed his and Chairman Singletary's trip to Washington D.C., which took place on June 27th to 29th. During their trip, they spoke with Congressman Tom Tancredo and Congressman Joel Hefley who were the only offices that were not vague about the Arkansas Valley Water Conduit and the PSOP program. Both Tancredo and Hefley felt the two projects were linked and Hefley felt the Conduit would not be able to progress until PSOP had been resolved. The entire Congressional Delegation urged the LAVWCD to come to a conclusion on PSOP.

General Manager Winner talked about the Continuing Legal Education Workshop (CLE). There were about eighty-five professionals there. General Manager Winner also spoke about there are currently twelve conservation easements in the pipe. Two were available for acceptance during the meeting. The CLE workshop also provided good publicity for Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). Kim Chavez attended a GOCO workshop and spoke with Wally Piccone about applying for grants to GOCO for conservation easements. To be eligible to apply for the grants, the District's mission statement would need to be amended slightly.

General Manager Winner directed the board to turn in the board meeting packet to the Minnequa tab. He discussed how the board had been trying to work with the City of Pueblo in the past and in the potential leasing of water from the Minnequa. Alan Ward of the Pueblo Board of Water Works (PBWW) explained that the PBWW had recommended that the water rights would be best left with CF&I instead of trying to convert them. Because of the difficulty with the water rights, the District has been trying to work with the City of Pueblo in putting Lake Minnequa and the property around it into a conservation easement. The board had approved a preliminary appraisal of this property to see what the possible results would be. The report will be available to the board within the next thirty to forty-five days.

General Manager Winner passed out an article about the Gunnison Basin Round Table. George Sibley is now on the Upper Gunnison Water Conservancy District board and is not opposed to Trans-Mountain diversions and is not opposed to the slogan that not one more drop of water out of Gunnison. This shows there could be some cooperation between the Gunnison Basin and the Arkansas Basin.

General Manager also pointed out that the Fountain Creek Assessment was available in the board packet. The assessment gives an umbrella look at what people are feeling about the fountain.

General Manager discussed the District's Outreach Program. There were two applications submitted to the board for approval. The first was for the Rocky Ford baseball diamonds and irrigation with new sprinkler system which would benefit about two hundred fifty kids. It was pointed out that the district had funds allocated for this project. Director Esquibel moved to accept the application since the District had allocated funds for such projects. Director Kennedy amended the motion to add that the application complied with the Outreach Program that was adopted September 14, 2005. Director Kennedy seconded the motion. The motion passed four to one with Director Whittaker opposing. The second application was for Crowley County's Town of Ordway spray jets. Director Esquibel moved to approve the request by the Town of Ordway's application. Director Kennedy seconded the motion. The motion carried four to one with Director Whittaker opposing.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT:
Chairman Singletary briefly discussed 51/49 allocation principles. In 1979 the Southeast District adopted the Allocation Principles. When agricultural lands are taken out of production, the project water goes into a pool for other uses. The Southeast District is discussing taking Crowley County project water and allocating it outside the District. Chairman Singletary opened the topic for discussion. Director Kennedy stated that because of the District's mission statement, the District must oppose the reallocation. She moved to formally oppose the reallocation by sending a letter of opposition along with suggestions for direction to the Southeast District within the next thirty days and to draft a resolution to be adopted at the next board meeting. The motion was seconded by Director Whittaker. The motion passed unanimously.

Chairman Singletary briefly discussed the trip to Washington D.C. and stated that those who went were able to get into about every office and the trip was worth while.

Chairman Singletary thanked Peter Nichols for his efforts with the CLE workshop. The workshop set the standard for what the Lower Valley can start doing. He was also happy to report that there were about eighty professionals in attendance at the workshop.

Chairman Singletary commented that the Lower Valley had some really big flows in the past few weeks. If Colorado Springs will concentrate on controlling the flows now so everything does not get torn apart, things will be well on their way.

General Manager Winner added that the District staff had attended the La Junta Wake-Up Breakfast meeting on Tuesday, July 5 and the District will be sponsoring the next Wake-Up Breakfast on August 15, 2006. Any board member that would like to attend, the breakfast begins at 6:45 a.m. at the OJC Banquet Room.

General Manager Winner also pointed out that Kim Chavez and Rachel Bogner were involved in the CLE meeting with the behind the scenes planning. Everything went well in front of the curtain, so they did a good job behind the curtain.

LEGISLATIVE REPORT:
Chairman Singletary reported that the water quality bill is included in the negotiations.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Personnel: Director Kennedy had nothing to report.

Legal: Director Esquibel stated that there were 85 professionals in attendance at the CLE workshop and thanked all those who helped with the workshop. It is also anticipated by many that the District will put on a similar workshop in the following year.

LEGAL REPORT:
Attorney Mendenhall stated that Jay Winner, Bill Hancock, and he attended a Board of Directors meeting of the Catlin Canal Company to present the outline of the water management program. While the Catlin has several unique problems which have to be resolved before it could participate in the program, he believes that several Directors were interested in the possibilities presented. There was good input concerning issues that would have to be dealt with.

Attorney Mendenhall discussed conservation easements. The district and he are working on conservation easements and are trying to get some started and processed. He had two to present to the board.

Resolution 2006-08: Director Whittaker moved to accept resolution 2006-08, Gerald Jordan of Crowley County for 40 shares of Colorado Canal Company stock and 40 shares of Lake Meredith Reservoir Company stock. Director Esquibel seconded the motion. Motion unanimously carried.

Resolution 2006-09: Director Esquibel moved to accept resolution 2006-09, Jelinski Family Trust of Pueblo County for 65 plus acres and amended to change resolution to state that the property is in the district. Director Moore seconded the motion. Motion unanimously carried.

Attorney Mendenhall followed up on the Water Management Program. He is in the process of setting up initial meetings with a couple more ditch companies, and believes the District will be ready to try to begin meeting with a group including representatives from all of the companies.

Attorney Mendenhall discussed the CLE Workshop. The workshop was well attended and well received. The representative from the IRS was remarkably forthcoming. The representative made an interesting comment that there were no criminal prosecutions in the Arkansas Valley-yet. There has been discussion on making the program an annual one. There is always room for improvement and change, and that is something to think about for the future.

Attorney Mendenhall expressed that GOCO is interested in working with the District on grants for conservation easements but wants a trust in place, which will take about two or three years to put into place, or to have something in the mission statement about conservation easements. He suggested amending the mission statement to include the sentence, "To further its mission, the District may, among other methods, accept conservation easements, with or without water attached, that will further the mission of the District and its interests." Director Whittaker moved to accept the amendment to include the sentence to the mission statement. Director Esquibel seconded the motion. Motion unanimously carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Fred Heckman, a member of Mc Clave Water Board, wanted handouts containing the presentation information presented by Jerry Kenny. Kelly Roesch, High Plains A&M, wanted the District to reconsider their position on opposing the reallocation of water. Chairman Singletary explained how opposing would benefit all in the District. Chairman Singletary addressed the concern letting the public know that they are opposed to allocating the water out of the Lower Arkansas Valley.

ADJOURNED:
Chairman Singletary asked if there were any other matters to come before the Board. Hearing none, motion was made by Director Esquibel, seconded by Director Moore to adjourn the meeting. Motion unanimously carried. Meeting was adjourned at 11:36 P.M.