1600 West 12th Avenue FRONT RANGE Denver, CO 80204-3412 WATER COUNCIL Kirsten Kurath Williams, Turner Holmes, PC. 744 Horizon Court, Suite 115 Grand Junction, CO 81506 Jim Pokrandt Colorado River Water Conservation District 201 Centennial St., #200 Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 Dear Kirsten and Jim: I?m writing as Chair of the Front Range Water Council, regarding your invitation as chair of the Colorado Basin Roundtable Demand Management Workgroup to several members of the FRWC to attend an upcoming workgroup meeting to discuss perspectives on the demand management discussions occurring across Colorado. The members ofthe FRWC very much appreciate your desire to engage in positive conversation and share information. The FRWC shares your belief that dialogue among the many interests affected by Colorado River issues is valuable to promoting, understanding, and hopefully creating innovative solutions that benefit the entire state without causing disproportionate risk to specific geographic areas or economic sectors. However, we believe it best to decline your invitation at this time. We feel it is best at this point not to have ?official? side meetings regarding demand management and what a demand management process/program may look like because, particularly with press present, such conversations may lead to confusion and may undermine the state process. Our reluctance to meet with your workgroup is not a reluctance to engage productively in discussions to help the state of Colorado and the upper basin protect our collective interests on the Colorado River. Last fall, the Colorado Water Conservation Board held a meeting in Steamboat to hear testimony regarding a state policy on the establishment of a demand management program. I?ve attached our letter to the CWCB outlining our position at that time, and which FRWC entities reiterated at the meeting. West Slope entities also provided testimony, and there were many areas of agreement. The policy adopted by the CWCB reflected the collective input of a variety of stakeholders. The FRWC continues to support the CWCB policy. Since that time, as you know, the potential for an upper basin demand management program has been embedded into the interstate drought contingency plans approved by federal legislation. A demand management program in the upper Colorado River basin can be established only through the state of Colorado, the other upper division states, and the Upper Colorado River Commission. The CWCB has established Aurora Water, Colorado Springs Utilities, Denver Board of Water Commissioners, Municipal Subdistrict Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Board of Water Works of Pueblo, Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Twin Lakes Reservoir Canal Company US Fish and Wildlife and Colorado Parks and Wildlife May 1, 2013 Page 2 a working group process to discuss and inform the state about the many issues implicated by a potential demand management program in the upper basin. The FRWC and many other stakeholders are actively engaged in this effort. We believe this state?led forum is the appropriate venue for these discussions, which we understand will be public in nature unless sensitive interstate legal issues are implicated. We also know the state is the ultimate decision-maker, and will seek input from many other interests, including the roundtables. Thus, we think it ismost supportive to the CWCB to keep the demand management conversations within the framework the CWCB has created. Again, we very much appreciate your invitation and the spirit in which it was offered. We don?t wish to discourage informal conversations that will lead to greater understanding. Sincerely, FRONT RANGE WATER COUNCIL 1600 West 12th Avenue I Denver, co 80204-3412 WATER COUNCIL September 13, 2018 CWCB Board Members Colorado Water Conservation Board 1313 Sherman St.. Room 718 Denver, CO 80203 Re: Upper Division States Storage Account in Lake Powell other initial units of the Colorado River Storage Project Act Dear CWCB Board Members, On behalf of the undersigned signatories, we express our support for the establishment of a demand management program in the upper Colorado river basin, and the authorization by Congress of a storage account in Lake Powell and other initial units of the Colorado River Storage Project Act without charge, for the purpose of storing water created by managing consumptive uses under a demand management program, for the exclusive bene?t of the Upper Division States to ensure compliance with Article of the Colorado River Compact. Any Upper Division storage account in Lake Powell and other CRSPA initial units should be exempt from coordinated operations between Lakes Mead and Powell. In other words, such an account should not be subject to equalization or balancing releases from Lake Powell (?Upper Division storage account?). We believe the creation and use of an Upper Division storage account in accordance with the principles described in this letter is in the best interests of the State of Colorado and will aid the State in protecting its water users while seeking to meet its interstate obligations. However, we also acknowledge that the creation of a demand management program in the Upper Division states will require signi?cant effort and collaboration among water users, Colorado state government, and the Upper Division states. As discussed below, we are fully committed to cooperating together with the state of Colorado to develop a demand management program that will bene?t the entire state and the Upper Division states, and that will not create disproportionate impacts to any region of Colorado. We request the CWCB and the State Engineer follow the principles set forth below as you work with us to adopt a program for Colorado?s use of an Upper Division storage account: The water generated by the demand management program in Colorado for storage in an Upper Division storage account, as a ?rst priority, should be generated from voluntary, temporary and compensated contributions of water from water users within Colorado that was bene?cially used under existing rights prior to being conserved as part of a demand management program and otherwise would have depleted the flows in the Upper Basin in Colorado. The conserved water would be stored and accounted for in the Upper Division storage account until it is determined Page 1 of 3 Letter Re: Upper Division Storage Account 9/13/2018 Page 2 of 3 by the Upper Colorado River Commission that release of the water is necessary for compliance with the Colorado River Compact. No water user would be required to contribute conserved water for this purpose and no entity or person would be expected or required to contribute funds for this purpose. Conserved water should be generated in a manner that does not result in injury to the water rights of others. Conserved water shall not be consumptively used by others within any Upper Division state. We agree to work with the state of Colorado to develop a demand management program that will avoid disproportionate impacts to any single basin or region. More speci?cally, the distribution of water generated from Colorado under any voluntary compensated demand management program should be derived from water rights used both east of the Continental Divide, and west of the Continental Divide in a manner that recognizes the respective proportionate share of total historical post-compact depletions to the Colorado River and its tributaries associated with the exercise of such water rights. The payments for water contributed to such a demand management program should be market-based within the area or market from which the water is generated, and will not necessarily be proportionate between basins. Any demand management program should re?ect bene?ts to each Upper Division state proportionate to the contributions by each Upper Division state. If the quantity of conserved water made available through a voluntary compensated demand management program is not suf?cient to ensure compliance with the Colorado River Compact, the state of Colorado and the Upper Colorado River Commission may need to adopt alternative measures to generate water for storage in an Upper Division storage account. We will work with the state of Colorado to develop an alternative mechanism for generating conserved water for the Upper Division storage account. We commit to fully and cooperatively engage in discussions related to the development of rules and regulations for the implementation of a voluntary program, and if necessary, State Engineer administration of water rights for the purpose of compliance with Colorado?s obligations under Article Ill of the Colorado River Compact. Nothing in this letter waives any of our rights to challenge the extent or exercise of the state of Colorado?s authority to promote or ensure compliance with the Compacts. Sincerely, th/?p/ 1a.; mes Lochhead anager Executlvc Director Denver Water Board ofWalcr Works of Pueblo Colorado 1 M. Patrick Wells, v.5. General Manager Water Resources 8: Demand nnagement Colorado Springs Utili 'Kevin L'usk 5 President. Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Compan Marshall P. Brown Director, Aurora Water roozotm Docxn 1 Letter Re: Upper Division Storage Account 9/!1120 18 Page 3 of 3 4/13 Bradley D. General Manager Northern Water James W. Broderick, Executive Director Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District