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<br />\.,nl~88 <br />UU v <br /> <br />944 <br /> <br />ECOLOGY lAW QUARTERLY <br /> <br />[Vol. 28:903 <br /> <br />~ <br />! <br />I <br /> <br />brinkmanship, Southern California's cities (via MWD and <br />SDCWA) acquired nearly 400,000 af of higher priority <br />agricultural water.267 Instead of guaranteed rights' to a mere <br />550,000 maf of California's 4.4 maf BCPA allocation, MWD/Los <br />Angeles now have guaranteed rights to more than 750,000 af; <br />SDCWA has guaranteed rights of up to 200,000 af - up from <br />ZerO.268 The cities have thus advanced significantly up the <br />California priority system. Assuming continued DOl surplus <br />declarations, the cities now have guaranteed rights to the full <br />Colorado River Aqueduct delivery capacity of 1.3 maf.269 <br />The adoption of the gSA represented a major step towards <br />the fmalization of the 4.4 Plan that the water users had <br /> <br />m. Allocation for Municipal Interests: 1.212 maf. spUt into two <br />priorities: <br />4) MWD and City of Los Angeles: 550.000 00; <br />5) 662.000 00 split between the cities: <br />-MWD and LA - 550,000 af <br />-SDCWA - 112,000 00. <br /> <br />IV. Allocation for Municipal and Agricultural Interests: 300.000 af. <br />equally spUt between (a) mUDicipalities.and agriculture and (b) PVID: <br />6)(a) 220.000 00. split into three priorities, satisfied in order: <br />-38,000 afto MWD <br />-63,000 afto lID <br />-119,000 to CVWD <br />(b) remainder to PVIDwith equal priority to (a). <br /> <br />V. Remaining Allocation: all remaining water, seventh and last priority, to <br />agricultural interests. <br />lID's and CVWD's use under priority 3(a) of the Seven party Agreement is thus <br />capped at fixed amounts (3.1 moo and 330,000 00, respectively), less the roughly <br />380.000 00 transferred. to the cities under the various agreements. In addition, MWD <br />receives any benefits (but also bears the risk) if use by priorities 1, 2, and 3(b) is <br />either less than or more than 420,000 00 - essentially giving MWD a free first option <br />on the remaining PVID and Yuma Project water - as well as an additional 38,000 af <br />of Priority 6 water in years in which that is available. MWD also has first option on <br />water that lID will make available to CVWDunder the agreement, which could afford <br />it access to thousands of additional acre-feet of agricultural water. In addition to <br />these changes, MWDwill have access to up to 90,000 00 per year of additional <br />conserved water from'IID under another conservation project (these amounts are not <br />reflected in the priority structure above). The Agreement also provides a small <br />amount of water as a byproduct to settle Indian reserved rights claims in the region. <br />See id. <br />267. See id. <br />268. See id. <br />269. Moreover, if the southern California cities were to develop additional <br />transportation capacity - via a new aqueduct, for example - they would be able to <br />take advantage of an additional 300,000 af of water rights which they now own under <br />the new priority system. but currently cannot use due to the limited capacity of the <br />Colorado River Aqueduct. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />~ <br />