Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />floods by levee and floodway pro jects, reso lution 0 f internat ional boundary water sanitation and <br />other water quality problems, and preservation of the river as the international boundary. The <br />IBWC consists of the United States Seetion and the Mexico Section which have their <br />headquarters in the adjoining cities of EI Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, respectively. <br />These and other federal, state and local agencies are expected to use the FEIS and ROD in their <br />planning and decisim-making processes. <br /> <br />II. Recommended Decision <br /> <br />The recommendation is the approval of the following Federal action: the adoption ofspecific <br />interim surplus guidelines identified in the Preferred Ahernative (Basin States Alternative) as <br />analyzed in the FEIS. These specifIc interim surplus guidelines would be used annually to <br />determine the conditions under which the Secretary would declare the a,ailability of surplus water <br />for use within the states of Arizona, California and Nevada. These guidelines would be consistent <br />with both the Decree entered by the United States Supreme Court in 1964 in the case of Arizolla <br />v. California (Decree) and Article III(3 )(b) of the Criteria for Coordil/ated Long-Range <br />Opera/ion of the Colorado River Resenoirs Pursuallf to the Colorado River Basin Project Act of <br />September 30, 1968 (LROC). The guidelines would remain in effect for detem1inations made <br />through calendar year 2015 regarding the availability of surplus water through calendar year <br />2016, may be subject to five-year rev iews conducted concurrently with LROC reviews, and would <br />be applied each year as part of the Annual Operation Plan (AOP) process. <br /> <br />III. Background <br /> <br />The Secretary of the Interior manages the lower Colorado River system in accordance with <br />federal law, including the 1964 Decree of the U. S. Supreme Court ill Arizona v. California <br />(Decree), the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 (CRBPA), and the Criteriafor <br />Coordinated Long-Range Opera/ion of the Colorado River Reservoirs Pursuant to the Colorado <br />River Basill Project Act afSeptember 30,1968 (LROC). Within this legal framework, the <br />Secretary makes arn1.Ual deternlinations regarding the availability of surplus water from Lake <br />Mead by considering various factors, including the amount of water in system storage and <br />predictions for natural runoff. The 1964 Decree provides that ifthere exists sufficient water <br />available in a single year tOr release (primarily from Lake Mead) to satisfY annual consumptive use <br />in the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada in excess of 7.5 nlillion acre-feet (mat), such <br />excess consumptive use in Arizona, California lU1d Nevada is "surplus." The Secrctary is <br />authorized to determine the conditions upon which such water may be made available. The <br />CRBPA directed the Secretary to adopt cr~eria lor coordinated long-range operation of <br />reservoirs on the Colorado River in order to comply with and carry out the provisions of the <br />Colorado River Compact of 1922 (Compact), the Colorado Rive'r Storage Project Act of 1956 <br />(CRSPA), the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (BCPA) and the United States-Mexico Water <br />Treaty of 1944 (Treaty). Thc Secretary sponsors a fornlal review of the LROC every five years. <br /> <br />2 <br />