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G03~37 Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife Page 2 August 31, 2001 While there is no flexibility in the timing to achieve the water use reduction benchmarks, we can help assure that they can be achieved. The Guidelines provide flexibility for California to prevent the Guidelines from being suspended. Flexibility in the timing of the implementation of each of the Plan's components will help ensure that the water use reduction benchmarks are achieved and to prevent suspension of the Guidelines, as well as the advancement of measures needed beyond the core transfers for California to live within its basic apportionment of river water. This flexibility is critical to address any unanticipated delays or modifications in the amount of reduced water use realized in implementing the transfers. While there are some options to help ensure the timely implementation of the California Plan, we must caution that there are limits to the extent of flexibility and available options. The Agencies, the state, and federal government have negotiated long and hard over the past several years to achieve historic agreements that resolve long-standing disputes as to the priority and use of water, with particular attention to associated costs. This has also involved the assumption of additional risks and responsibilities by the Agencies and the commitment to spend billions of Agencies' dollars to allow California to meet its Colorado River water needs within its basic apportionment. To significantly change the conditions relied on in those agreements or to impose additional conditions and burdens beyond those required under current law at this late date could potentially upend these historic agreements. It is worth pointing out up-front that the Agencies are justifiably relying on the work of the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program and the Salton Sea Reclamation Feasibility Study. These efforts will address a number of comprehensive issues, including the necessary environmental compliance and endangered species permits for the on-river and Salton Sea impacts of the California Plan's core agriculture-to-urban water transfers. Both of these efforts are significantly behind schedule and have required the Agencies to address the Plan's components separately, requiring additional work. Other matters have arisen that have also expanded the scope of our effort. We must also not forget the magnitude and significance of this joint effort; we are reducing California's use of Colorado River water by about 800,000 acre-feet per year and must still meet the region's water needs. This will occur through the Quantification Settlement Agreement transfers, other cooperative water supply programs, storage and conjunctive use programs, and other programs and measures. These projects and programs will be complemented by the individual Agencies' efforts in regards to additional water conservation, water reuse, and local project development. The Agencies have engaged and cooperatively worked with other Colorado River water users, other Basin States, federal and states agencies, congressional and state legislative members and staffs, Mexican interests, and selected environmental organizations to advance the implementation of the California Plan. The Agencies resolve and willingness to work with others can be demonstrated by the Guidelines themselves and the Inadvertent Overrun and Pay Back 2