Coconino Plateau Water Advisory Council
July 27, 2007
USGS Building #3
2255 N Gemini Drive,
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
Water Advisory Council Members Present
Joelynn Roberson, Hopi Tribe, Vice-Chairman, WAC
Deb Hill, Coconino County
Joe Haughey, City of Flagstaff
John Kocjan, City of Page
Lena Fowler, Navajo Nation
Tom Whitmer, Arizona Department of Water Resources
Bob Michaels, Bureau of Reclamation
Carol Boyd, Coconino National Forest
Barry Baker, Tusayan
Lisa McNeilly, The Nature Conservancy
Nikolai Ramsey, Grand Canyon Trust
Joelynn Roberson, WAC Vice Chairman, opened the meeting at 10 a.m. Don Bills asked to make some announcements regarding the use of the facility before they got started. He said that since the meeting room is getting a lot more use USGS has established some “etiquette” guidelines that they were asking everyone to adhere to. Specifically, he asked that for any conversations outside the meeting room they use the break room or actually go outside the building, the same for cell phone calls. He noted that there are offices in the building and discussions in the hallway are disruptive to getting work done.
Joelynn continued with asking everyone to introduce themselves. Next was approval of the minutes from the June 29 meeting, which were passed on a motion by Tom Whitmer and seconded by Deb Hill.
The next item was a report from the advocacy group that met with Arizona’s Congressional Delegation in Washington DC in mid-July. Joelynn gave an overview, noting that she participated in the trip along with Liz Archuleta, Tom Whitmer, Lena Fowler, Scott Canty, and Kara Kelty from the City of Flagstaff. She mentioned that Cheryl Lombard from The Nature Conservancy was there at the same time meeting on TNC issues as well as this. She said that the group met with all of the Arizona Congressional delegation as well as officials from the Bureau of Reclamation. Overall the group felt it was a successful trip.
After some discussion Joelynn moved on to the rest of the agenda, suggesting that they hear the committee reports before the presentations from ADWR.
Leslie Meyers gave the TAC report, noting that they had met yesterday. She said that Tom was working on a letter to the BIA Gallup Office for the WAC to consider requesting continuation of the funding for the C-Aquifer study. She said that the ATAC also addressed other funding options, as well as the possibility of having ADEQ and the City of Flagstaff help out with the monitoring.
Leslie said the Committee also reviewed a very preliminary plan of study for the feasibility study. She also gave an update on the Lake Powell intake structure analysis.
Next was a report from the Government Affairs Committee. Joanne Keene gave this report, mentioning that she had been voted in as the new chair, replacing Eunice Tso. She said the committee met just before the WAC and spent the time discussing the advocacy group’s visit to DC.
Deb Hill gave the Public Outreach Committee report. She said they are still working on the website. She said that each member of the WAC will be sent a description of their organization or agency for them to read and approve. She also asked the National Park Service and Forest Service about whether the WAC site should have links to theirs. Carol Boyd suggested a direct link to the Coconino would be good. Deb asked about having the meeting minutes available on-line and there was no opposition. She said that they are working on having a mock-up ready in 1-2 months. She asked again for any water photos that could be used.
Next was a presentation by Liza Logan, ADWR, on in-stream flow water rights. Liza explained that this is related to surface water rights as defined in the Arizona Revised Statutes. She noted that there are two categories for applications to appropriate water-either for consumptive or non consumptive uses. In-stream flow maintenance falls under the non-consumptive (diverted) uses including wildlife or recreation. She reviewed the process for filing an application and timelines. You must justify the relationship between the claimed beneficial use and the requested stream flow rates. She said that in-stream flow applications are almost always protested.
Liza said that there are four current applications that may be of interest to the WAC and mentioned Chevlon Creek and East Clear Creek specifically. She said that there are currently no protests on Chevlon one, but the East Clear Creek application is being protested by several entities. Liza said that Phelps Dodge is interested in all in-stream flows.
Liza said that protection of endangered species is one primary reason for in-stream flow permits. She said that Game and Fish reviews all requests.
There was discussion about enforcement and the role of the State and counties.
The next item on the agenda was a presentation by Rich Burtell on the Arizona Water Atlas. Rich began his presentation by stating that the Water Atlas is not intended to be a substitution for other reports, but it is intended to be a clearinghouse of recent information and will be updated as new information is obtained. He said that now original research is being done for the Atlas.
Rich reviewed the organization and schedule of the volumes. He said that Volume 1 provides a good overview and explains the data sources. He said that they are looking for comments and encouraged everyone to look at that volume. He described the contents, including data, maps, and tables. He did note that USGS and ADWR use different groundwater basins.
Rich said that the atlas is available on line at www.azwater.gov, but that hard copies and CD’s are available upon request. He suggested contacting Rich or Linda Spitzer to obtain those. He said that they will be releasing a draft of the Coconino Plateau Study the end of September so there will be time to review and provide comments. It was suggested that this might be a good agenda item for review in either October or November.
The WAC thanked Liza and Rich for their presentations.
The meeting was adjourned at noon.