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<br />JU22'i3 <br /> <br />indicates that additional water should be released for beneficial use in lieu of potential release <br />through the flood control criteria. If incremental surplus volumes are limited under this tier, <br />priority must be given to groundwater banking for future M&I needs within California over <br />agricultural uses. Agricultural uses in California should be limited to those years when the ''70R'' <br />criteria results in large surplus volumes and there is a high degree of certainty that water would <br />otherwise be subject to spill. <br />5.) Flood Control criteria <br />This tier refers to the current Corps of Engineers criteria for space building in Lake Mead <br />that is necessary to avoid damaging levels of downstream flood releases. The flood control <br />criteria is not, per se, a surplus strategy. Rather it is a strategy to use reservoir space to be able to <br />reduce peak inflows so that outflow rates can be reduced to non-damaging levels. The surplus <br />strategy relationship develops when the Corps criteria call for reservoir releases to be made at <br />levels above downstream delivery requirements. Rather than let that volume be spilled to the Gulf <br />of California, this tier of surpluses are designed to allow increased beneficial use in the Lower <br />Division States and Mexico. <br />The Corps has defined specific volumes of storage space that must be left vacant during <br />certain months of the year depending on forecast volumes to accommodate spring runoff or other <br />unanticipated weather events. They have also mandated specific release rates by month to achieve <br />these vacant storage spaces. In order to avoid the "dumping" of water in order to build storage <br />space, provisions will be made which would allow the Lower Division States to schedule <br />additional water for delivery. The volume of extra water available for delivery is equal to the <br />amount that must be evacuated from storage, above regularly scheduled downstream demands, to <br />meet the space requirements. Under some conditions, such as when the reservoirs are starting the <br />year very full and when the forecast runoff is above average, the amount of flood control release <br />could be several million acre feet. Under other circumstances, the 'space building formula may be <br />such that only small volumes of water would need to be evacuated. However, since flood control <br />related releases are generally associated with very full reservoir conditions, the Six State proposal <br />would allow any and all beneficial uses to be met, including unlimited off stream groundwater <br />banking and additional water for Mexico. <br /> <br />10 <br />