WSP12459 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

". 0~.l:,-' 0 J;.Jv~0u INFORMATION SHEET CALIFORNIA COLORADO RIVER WATER USE PLAN H.R. 2764, the Colorado River Quantification Settlement Facilitation Act (introduced by Congressman Duncan Hunter, CA), enables the implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), the critical component of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan (California Plan). The California Plan provides the framework that will allow California to live within its basic 4.4 million acre-feet annual apportionment of Colorado River water. The following background should emphasize the need for, and urgency of, this legislation. The Colorado River is a vital water resource for California, supporting approximately 17 million residents and some of the most productive municipal, industrial, and agricultural centers in the world. In recent years, California has been using approximately 5.2 million acre-feet per year of Colorado River water, relying on system surpluses and apportioned but unused waters of Nevada and Arizona. California's ability to live within its basic apportionment of Colorado River water has been, and continues to be, of great concern to the other Colorado River Basin states and Mexico. The reality now is that California must put in place its California Plan to transition to its basic apportionment of Colorado River water, a reduction of approximately 800,000 acre-feet per year from its present level of use. This reduction is equivalent to the amount of water used annually by over 5 million people in and around the home in southern California. The QSA provides for quantification of the parties' rights and priorities to Colorado River water, and for core agriculture to urban water conservation/transfers. These QSA features, together with water storage and conjunctive use programs, conservation and reuse programs, and other cooperative water supply programs and measures, are the means by which California will be able to live within its basic apportionment of Colorado River water. In January 2001, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Basin states, issued the Colorado River Interim Surplus Guidelines (Guidelines). The Guidelines allow California a 15-year period to transition to its basic apportionment as it puts its transfers and other programs in place. However, unless the QSA is executed by December 31, 2002, the Guidelines may be suspended by the Secretary of the Interior until such time as California completes all required actions and complies with the progressive reductions in water use reflected in the Guidelines. The practical effect if such a suspension occurs would be loss of750,000 acre-feet per year of Colorado River water to urban southern California, resulting in a severe water crisis with devastating economic impacts for the state. Agricultural water conservation necessary to the QSA water transfers will reduce inflows of drainage water to the Salton Sea. The Sea's salinity levels have been increasing for decades and, without a comprehensive solution, will soon be too saline to support a