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o ~ 0) 'P"'l C- O The Colorado River Board is the State agency representing California on the Lower Colorado Region Framework studies, with the Board staff participating in the Lower Colorado Region State-Federal Inter-Agency Group and in the various committees and work groups performing the investigations. The Board staff is also a participant in the Coordinated Planning Subcommittee of PSIAC. In 1969 the Board staff reviewed and com- mented on the work output from the policy and the study work groups and on the study methodology and criteria, presented sugges- tions on procedures and criteria, and offered data from studies performed by the Board. The Board was particularly active in the fol- lowing work groups: (1) Water Resources, (2) Municipal and Industrial Water Require- ments, (3) Irrigation and Drainage, (4) Water ~ality, (5) Economics, (6) Legal and Institu- tional Environments, and (7) General Pro- gram and Alternatives. An important item concerning the frame- work studies is the adoption of criteria and assumptions that would define the Colorado River water supply. As noted in the Board's 1968 Annual Report, the Board's staff recom- mended that the studies consider a range of values for river water supply rather than just one, the optimistic value derived from the 190~5 historical period. Now the studies also include consideration of the water sup- ply derived from the 1914-65 and 1922-65 periods. The Board staff recommended that areas within the Lower Colorado Region where little or no recharge of applied water is reach- ing the groundwater table be identified. The accurate determination of water demands is dependent upon this information because in portions of Central Arizona the groundwater table is receding at such a rapid rate, due to over pumping, that recharge water from sur- face applications does not reach the ground- water table and thus is not available for reuse. The framework studies will take this factor into account in estimating water sup- ply and demand. 16 During the latter part of the year, prelimi- nary drafts of the appendixes for the Lower Colorado Region framework studies were re- ceived and reviewed by the staff. Comments and recommendations were sent to the fol- lowing work groups: Economics, Water Re- sources, Municipal and Industrial Water Re- quirements, Irrigation and Drainage, Water ~ality, and Legal and Institutional Envi- ronments. The Board staff also reviewed and com- mented on the appendixes for the California Region. Its comments were limited to the South Coastal and Colorado Desert Subre- gions and concerned mainly with the man- ner and presentation of data on groundwater storage capacity, and with the lack of data and discussions on salinity and drainage problems in Coachella, Imperial, and Palo Verde Valleys. Western United States Water Plan Study The Western United States Water Plan Study originated in Titles I and II of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 (P.L. 90-537). This Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop a regional water plan to meet the future water needs of the western United States. The survey will en- compass those states lying wholly or in part west of the Continental Divide, which are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mon- tana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The investigation is to be of a reconnais- sance nature, carried out under the general authority of Reclamation Law, and is to be coordinated with studies now going on under the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965. As stated in the Conference Committee Report and in subsequent considerations on the floor of the House and Senate, the Colorado River Basin Project Act does not change the responsibilities or relationships among the federal agencies with regard to the river basin commissions presently in- volved in comprehensive water resource planning in the western states. The direction of those comprehensive studies already un-