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Water Development Office

Platte River Basin Advisory Group
Meeting Record
Saratoga, WY
February 10, 2004

Welcome

Facilitator Sherri Gregory welcomed the group and the meeting was called to order promptly at 10:00am. Sherri asked the people in attendance to introduce themselves, and she reviewed the meeting agenda (attached). A sign-in sheet was passed around to record attendance.

Sherri announced that the next regular BAG meeting is scheduled for 10:00 am on April 13, 2004 in Torrington. Because a North Platte Decree meeting is schedule at 8:00 on the same day, Sherri asked if there would be any conflicts in schedules. It was agreed that the meetings would not interfere with each other.

Planning Team Issues

Overview of Basin Planning Activities: Barry Lawrence provided an update on the status of basin planning activities for other river basins. Scheduled meeting dates and locations are as follows:
Bear River Basin Monday, March 22nd Cokeville
Green River Basin Tuesday, March 23rd Rock Springs
Snake/Salt River Basin Wednesday, March 24th Alpine
Wind/Bighorn River Basin Tuesday, April 6th Lander
Powder/Tongue River Basin Wednesday, April 7th Buffalo
Northeast River Basin Thursday, April 8th Sundance

Briefing Books: Vicki Beckman distributed briefing notebooks to those members who did not receive one in December’s meeting. Vicki also distributed a BAG roster, a revised map, a handout listing “Water Measures and Equivalents” and Ed Harvey’s draft presentation from December’s meeting. She instructed the group on where to put each item in their briefing notebooks.

North Platte Cooperative Agreement Discussion

Mike Besson gave a presentation about the status of the North Platte Cooperative Agreement. He told the BAG that the Draft Environmental Impact Study was now available for review and comment. He indicated that endangered species is a complicated issue for all water users in the North Platte River basin and that his goal is to keep existing water users in Wyoming “whole”, given the additional demands for water in the basin.

Mike introduced Norman DeMott, who spoke about the history of the Cooperative Agreement and his views on the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP). Mike provided the BAG with a handout entitled PRRIP vs. Individual Consultation (Program vs. No Program) and led a discussion about Wyoming’s objectives for moving forward with the Cooperative Agreement. He also provided the BAG with a handout entitled Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) and he discussed the history of the Endangered Species Act and the actions that trigger a Section 7 consultation.

During the course of his presentation, Mr. Besson answered questions from the BAG and encouraged them to contact him with any thoughts or comments they have with respect to the Cooperative Agreement.

Consultant Update – Educational Tool Concept Presentation

Joel Farber of TriHydro Corporation explained that the purpose of the “Educational Tool” was to educate people within the Basin about water related issues. He explained that the Tool would be a web based information source. Through a PowerPoint presentation, Joel walked the group through a generic website of how he anticipated the site would look. He also handed out a site flow chart to show the group how he envisioned the Tool would be structured. Joel explained that the site would provide two avenues to access information. The first avenue would be a map on the home page and the second would be the navigation bar that would be present on all of the pages. Joel asked for suggestions on the website structure and asked the group to come up with a name for the site by the next meeting. It was suggested that the information be organized according to interest groups rather that geographically.

Issues Identification

Following Joel’s presentation, the facilitator took the floor. As homework, Sherri asked the group to write down issues and major concerns in each of the following categories:

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster/Emergency Response/Drought Mitigation
  • Downstream Claims/Compacts/Decrees
  • Economic Development
  • Federal Involvement
  • Groundwater
  • Industrial/Minerals Extraction
  • Municipal/Domestic
  • Non-consumptive Issue – Instream Flows
  • Recreation
  • Water Development
  • Water Quality
  • Water Rights/Water Law/Prior Appropriation
  • Water Conservation/Reuse

These issues are defined in Tab G of the briefing notebooks.

The next Platte River Advisory Group Meeting is scheduled for 10:00 am on April 13, 2004 in Torrington.

The meeting was adjourned shortly after 1:00pm.


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