Laserfiche WebLink
<br />1, <br /> <br />',' <br />~ " <br /> <br />The Upper Basin States have previously stated disagreement with some of the <br />assumptions in the 1984 hydrologic investigation. Therefore, it should be <br />stated that results from this 1988 hydrologic investigation are for Bureau <br />planning purposes only., <br /> <br /><:.) <br />CO) <br />1'-') <br />-.J <br />c.", <br />-..I <br /> <br />II. Introduction <br /> <br />The Act of June 13, 1962 (76 Stat. 96, Public Law 87-483), authorizing the <br />Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and the San Juan-Chama'Project, provides <br />in Section 11 that the Secretary of Interior shall not enter into long-term <br />contracts for the delivery of water from Navajo Reservoir until he has made <br />certain hydrologic determinations as to water availability, has submitted <br />such determinations to the Congress, and the congress has approved such <br />contracts. The act also authorized the Secretary to market water from <br />Navajo Reservoir for other municipal and industrial uses in New Mexico if <br />he determines on the basis of hydrologic investigation that such water is <br />reasonably likely to be available. <br /> <br />By November 1967, the first determination which made 100,000 acre~feet of <br />water available for marketing was submitted to the Congress, and on March <br />22, 1968, Senate Joint Resolution 123 (Public Law 90-272) was adopted, <br />approving three long-term contracts with a total estimated annual depletion <br />of 51,550 acre-feet. However, by the early 1980's it became impractical to <br />sell water to meet long-term demands from the Navajo Reservoir supply ~nder <br />the Secretary of the Interior's 1963 determination. 'Under that <br />determination, any contracts must terminate in the year 2005, which did not <br />allow enough time for potential contractors to develop a project and <br />recover investments. <br /> <br />In December 1984, the Secretary of Interior signed an updated hydrologic <br />determination for the Upper Colorado River Basin by the Bureau of Reclama- <br />tion (Reclamation). A principal conclusion of the 1984 determination was <br />the estimation that there was enough runoff in the Upper Basin to support a <br />depletion level of at least 5.8 million acre-feet (MAF). This <br />determination also certified the availability of 69,000 acre-feet per year <br />of water for marketing from Navajo Reservoir through the year 2039. <br />Although there was some indication, dependent upon assumptions and study <br />conditions, that utilization of the Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS) <br />might have resulted in somewhat greater yield estimations for the Upper <br /> <br />2 <br />