WSP11935

• File Number: 8210.140.20
• Description: Colorado River Basin Organizations and Entities - Colorado River Basin States Forum - California
• State: CA
• Basin: Western Slope
• Date: 1/1/1977
• Author: Myron B Holburt
• Title: Annual Report for the Calendar Year 1976
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

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will be terminated by 1985. The
Board's staff reviewed the proposed
notices and recommended some
clarifications of definition and the
addition of a reference to the future
water district proposed for the area.
The federal government indicated that
it would publish the written notice in
the Federal Register and in local
newspapers in communities located
along the lower Colorado River.
In late 1976, the Yuma District
Office of the Bureau of Land
Management transmitted for review
and comment draft copies of a
proposed recreation management plan
for the Laguna-Martinez area along
the lower Colorado River and an
environmental analysis. The plan
proposed recreation developments but
did not propose any means for
acquisition of a water supply for the
developments. The Board's comments
recommended that the plan describe
the proposed future water uses in the
area and proposed water supply
sources, both interim and permanent.
Also, it was recommended that
mention be made of the 1975 report
of the Task Force for Acquisition of a
Permanent Water Supply for Bureau
of Land Management Programs along
the lower Colorado River and the
present status of the Department of
the Interior's activities to implement
the recommendations of that report.

Weather Modification Activities

In 1976, the Bureau of Reclamation
proposed a 13-year, $36 million
demonstration project to study the
seeding of the atmosphere to produce
additional precipitation and runoff in
the Colorado River Basin. The project
would require about three years to
plan and install the needed equipment
and seeding would be conducted over
a 10-year period. The demonstration
project will be based on data
obtained from and analyses of the
results of the recently-completed

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5-year Colorado River Basin Pilot
Project in the San Juan Mountains.
The Board passed a resolution
supporting further work on
c10udseeding demonstration projects
in the Colorado River Basin.
The Colorado River Basin Pilot
Project was evaluated by an
independent consultant, Aerometric
Research Incorporated of Goleta,
California, in a report entitled
"Comprehensive Evaluation
Report-Colorado River Basin Pilot
Project". The report concluded that
the project demonstrated the reality of
the physical concepts of weather
modification potential over mountain
watersheds, but the test of pilot
project seeding methods did not
prove successful because of the
special constraints imposed by the test
procedures.

Lower Colorado River
Management Program

The Federal-State Lower Colorado
River Management Program Work
Group met three times during 1976 to
continue coordination of problems of
river control, channelization, and
environmental preservation and
enhancement. The Coordinating
Committee did not meet in 1976. The
work of both of these groups has
been described in previous annual
reports.
The Bureau of Reclamation
continued work to develop a
management plan for the lower
portion of the Parker Division that
included channelization, bank
stabilization, and fish and wildlife
features. This work had been resumed
in July 1975 after almost two years of
no action and included a work plan
by a subcommittee consisting of
representatives from the Bureau of
Reclamation, the Colorado River
I ndian Reservation, and state and
federal fish and wildlife agencies. The
subcommitiee presented to the Work
Group in March of 1976 a new river

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stabilization plan which had been
coordinated with the various interests
but which still contained some
unresolved issues. The major
unresolved issues were two dry cuts
proposed to eliminate sharp bends in
the river, one at Alligator Slough and
the other at Hall Island. The Bureau
of Reclamation is attempting to
develop another channel stabilization
plan that would eliminate the dry cuts
and still stabilize the existing channel.
No further meetings of the Work
Group were held during 1976 in
regard to this plan.
Other activities of the Work Group
during 1976 included reviews of
proposed plans for dredging an
existing lagoon as a park for the City
of Needles, improvement of a boat
mooring and beach area near the
existing Park Moabi Marina, and plans
for stabilization with rip rap of about
7,000 feet of the west bank of the
Colorado River above and below Palo
Verde Dam.

Legal Issues

Arizona v. California and Other
Lower Basin Water Rights Issues

The Board staff, Attorney General's
office, and the various parties to the
Arizona v. California litigation
continued efforts to settle the issues of
present perfected rights. As defined in
the 1964 U.s. Supreme Court Decree,
present perfected rights are
mainstream water rights acquired
under state law, or federal reserved
water rights, both established prior to
June 25, 1929, the effective date of
the Boulder Canyon Project Act.
In June 1976, the Solicitor of the
Department of the Interior invited
representatives of the parties to a
meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, and
presented several changes to the
proposed stipulated judgment for
present perfected rights. The parties
generally accepted these proposed
changes and incorporated them into a
draft stipulation which was submitted
to the Solicitor in July. The Solicitor
then made a request for further