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~ " "'-. j. ,,- ...JJU Southern Nevada Water Project was com- pleted in 1971 and began diverting water out of Lake Mead in June. The completed facili- ties are capable of delivering 132,000 acre feet of water annually to Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Nellis Air Force Base, Henderson, and Boulder City. The Bureau of Reclama- tion transferred operation and maintenance of the Project to the Colorado River Commis- sion of Nevada on November I, 1971. Dixie Project. The Board's staff re- viewed the Bureau of Reclamation's definite plan report on the Dixie Project during 1971. The report suggested an allocation of funds for the removal of La V erkin Springs, a source of highly saline water to the Colorado River. However, the estimated cost for the removal was much lower than that shown in the Colorado River Board's report, "Need for Controlling the Salinity of the Colorado Riv- er". The Bureau of Reclamation eXplained that the sum shown in its report would be used to indemnify downstream irrigators if damage from project operations occurred. Havasu Pumped Storage Project. On January 15, 1971, the Federal Power Com- mission issued an order granting a rehearing to the Arizona Power Authority on FPC's November 13, 1970, preliminary permit for the proposed Havasu Pumped Storage Project. The rehearing is on the objections of APA to a provision of the permit requiring APA to pay $50,000 to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to finance a study of the effect the proposed project would have on fish and wildlife resources and a study of the means and measures required to conserve and develop fish and wildlife resources. AP A is willing to cooperate with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Depart- ment of the Interior in making the studies after it has evaluated the nature and extent of studies required, As of the end of 1971, a re- hearing had not been scheduled, MWD Accumulated Storage Investigotions Section 8 of Article (6) of the United States-Metropolitan Water District water \ , delivery contract dated September 28, 1931, provides that Metropolitan shall have the right to store water in Lake Mead to the indi- vidual credit of Metropolitan, subject to con- ditions to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, This provision, known as the accumulative storage provision, was first in- cluded in the priority schedule in the Seven Party Water Agreement dated August 18, 1931. During the past several years Metropol- itan has collected all available documentary material relevant to the execution of the Sev- en Party Water Agreement to determine the meaning of the accumulative storage provi- sion, Each of the other California Colorado River water contractors has cooperated with Metropolitan in the collection of this infor- mation. During the latter part of 1971, the Board staff worked with Metropolitan's staff on a study of the possibilities of utilizing Metro- politan's right of accumulative storage at Lake Mead in conjunction with the water supply from the State Water Project. This study was in progress at the close of the year, Geothermal Resources of Imperial Valley During 1971, the program to define the extent and quality of the geothermal re- sources of the Lower Colorado River delta, with special emphasis on the Imperial Valley of California continued. The program has been under way for the past few years with support of federal, state, local and private contributions, On February 14, 1971, Secretary of the In- terior Rogers C. B. Morton announced that exploratory drilling by the Bureau of Recla- mation in the Imperial Valley appears to sup- port projections obtained from surface geophysical examinations and indicates the Valley's geothermal resources may provide a major new supply of water as well as power. Findings from drilling early in 1971 indicat- ed that a productive geothermal well could be obtained in the area known as the Dunes Anomaly, in California about 25 miles north- west of Y urna, Arizona, at a depth of from 43