WSP10764

• File Number: 8277.200
• Description: California Water Resources Association/California Salinity Projects
• State: CA
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/1963
• Title: Colorado River Board of California Annual Report 1969
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

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..... The reductions in excess deliveries to Mex-
~ ico are attributed to improved river opera-
tion by the Bureau of Reclamation, to regula-
tion afforded by Senator Wash Reservoir,
and to cooperation by the water users' more
stringent water scheduling. Table 5 shows
Bureau of Reclamation records of scheduled
orders and rejected water by agencies below
Parker Dam for water year 1969. Of the 143,
088 acre-feet of total water ordered but not
taken: 92,710 acre-feet was delivered to stor-
age, 47,703 acre-feet was accepted by other
users, and only 2,675 acre-feet of the rejected
water was delivered to Mexico in excess of
treaty requirements. California agencies or-
dered but did not take 1.1 percent ofthe total
requested diversions. The comparable figure
for Arizona was 5.6 percent.

Criteria for Long-Range Operation of
Colorado River Reservoirs
Section 602 of P.L. 90-537., the Colorado
River Basin Project Act of 1968, requires the
Secretary of the Interior to submit proposed
criteria for long-range coordinated operation
of Lake Mead and Colorado River Storage
Project Act reservoirs to the Colorado River
Basin states prior to January 1, 1970, and to
adopt criteria no later than July 1, 1970.
Early in 1969 the Colorado River Board
staff commenced studies of various ap-
proaches to development of the criteria. Due
to the short time available to complete this
complex assignment, contacts were made
with Regions 3 and 4 of the Bureau of Recla-
mation and the Secretary of the Interior to
urge the Federal Government to commence
working with the states at an early date.
Coordinated efforts were also established in-
terstate with Arizona and Nevada and instate
with the Department of Water Resources,
the Attorney General, and the Colorado
River water and power contractors.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior James
R. Smith called a meeting of federal officials
and representatives from the Colorado River
Basin states and contractors on July 25, 1969,
at which time preliminary documents, in-
cluding a draft of proposed criteria were dis-

tributed, explained, and commented on. The
Assistant Secretary also asked the Governors
of the seven Basin States to appoint one re-
presentative from each state to serve on a
federal-state task force to develop the opera-
ting criteria. Governor Reagan appointed
Chief Engineer Myron B. Holburt to repre-
sent California on the Task Force. Mr. J. R.
Riter, Denver Office of the Bureau of Recla-
mation, was Chairman of the Task Force on
Operating Criteria.
The first meeting of the Task Force was
held in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 7,
1969, where three subcommittees were
formed to actively work on the engineering
studies recommended by the Chief Engineer
in an August 4, 1969, letter to the Chairman
of the Task Force. The subcommittees were:
Uses and Losses, Upper Basin Depletions,
and Test Studies and Probabilities.
The Subcommittee on Uses and Losses
was assigned the task of estimating river
losses and the resulting specific demand fig-
ures for future releases from Lake Mead (for
study purposes only). The Subcommittee on
Upper Basin Depletions analyzed existing
and proposed projects to determine future
depletions from the Upper Basin. The Sub-
committee on Test Studies and Probabilities
developed rule curves and scheduled com-
puter analyses of alternative criteria. The
Task Force on Operating Criteria received
reports from the three subcommittees, out-
lined additional work, reviewed computer
studies of alternative operating criteria,
reached conclusions of fact pertaining to the
studies, and discussed the impact of various
alternatives on the basin states.
In October the Task Force Chairman re-
quested each state to submit its proposals for
the operating criteria. At the final meeting of
the Task Force on November 24, 1969, Cali-
fornia and Arizona each submitted proposals
of operating criteria while the other states
and the Upper Colorado River Commission
presented comments on the Bureau of Recla-
mation's studies and draft of operating cri-
teria. At the meeting's conclusion, the Chair-
man asked for written comments on the

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