BOARD00060 ‎(3)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 1/24/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River 7-State Agreement Approval
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Ritter, Jr.
Governor

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Harris D. Sherman
Executive Director

FROM:

Rod Kuharich
Randy Seaholm ~
Ted Kowalski

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

DATE:

January 11, 2007

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 17, January 23-24, 2007 Board Meeting:
Water Supply Protection - Colorado River 7-State Agreement
Approval

1. Backl!round

As a result of the recent drought conditions, Lake Powell, which serves as the
Upper Basin's primary storage vessel for meeting deliveries to the Lower Basin, reached
a storage content in 2004 not seen since the reservoir began to fill. Lake Powell was
about one-third full and had only about 4.0 million acre-feet (mat) left in active storage.
The Upper Basin States became concerned that if the drought continued for another 2-
years at the current severity, Powell would reach inactive storage and hydropower
generation and the benefits associated therewith lost. Moreover, the Lower Basin was
receiving near record precipitation.and Lake Mead was about 60% full.

Because of this situation, in October 2004, the Upper Basin States asked the
Secretary of Interior for a mid year review of the 2005 Annual Operating Plan for
Colorado River Reservoirs. Over the objections of the Lower Basin, the Secretary
conducted that mid-year review and stated that while she could legally reduce the
releases from Lake Powell, elected not change the volume of water released from Lake
Powell.

The Secretary did however initiate a process on May 2, 2005 for the development
of Lower Basin Shortage Criteria along with a review ofthe 1970 Coordinated Long-
Range Operating Criteria for Colorado River Reservoirs to evaluate the potential for
changes in the operations of Lakes Powell and Mead under low reservoir conditions. On