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COLORADO RIVER DELTA BI-NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS ENGLISH 28 Under constitutional commerce and naviga- tion powers, the federal government has con- structed and operates large water projects for a number of purposes, including reservoirs to store and release water so as to allow the Upper Basin to meet Lower Basin obligations. The Secretary of the Interior has the authority to establish operating criteria for federal reservoirs, including how water is released and stored. The Secretary also has the power to declare surplus water within the Lower Basin. (This surplus is different than a surplus declared under the 1944 Mexican Treaty.) This has been a critical compo- nent of the interim surplus guidelines to help the State of California live within its Colorado River apportionment as established in Arizona v. California. As a result of 1) appropriations under state law, 2) reserved rights for federal lands and Indian Reservations, 3) apportionments made to all of the states by interstate compact and in the 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act as upheld in Arizona v. California, and 4) the delivery obliga- tion of the United States to Mexico under the 1944 Treaty, all of the water in the Colorado River basin in the United States has been appor- tioned and is obligated. Major cities, industries and agricultural operations are dependent on those allocations, as are environmental and recreational interests and programs. GARY WEATHERFORD WEATHERFORD AND TAAFFE, LLP: Mr. Weatherford said he would focus on the Lower Basin states and the allocation of Colo- rado River water within those states. Arizona, California and Nevada share a beneficial con- sumptive use right of 75 million acre-feet each successive 10-year period - about 7.5 million acre-feet annually. California receives 4.4 million acre-feet, Arizona 2.8 million acre-feet, and Nevada 300,000 acre-feet, determined under the 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act and enforced by the 1964 Arizona v. California Decree. The 1964 Decree allows the Secretary of the Interior to allocate the unused apportionment of one Lower Basin state to use in one or more of the other Lower Basin states. Historically, California has used the unused apportionments of Arizona and Nevada. However, surplus declarations by the Secretary have pushed consumptive uses of the Lower Basin states, but primarily by California, to 8.2 million acre-feet annually. California is expected to ramp down its use to the legal 4.4 million acre-feet by 2016. , When a surplus declaration is made, 50 percent of the surplus goes to California, 46 percent to Arizona and 3 percent to Nevada. However, in the case of the interim surplus guidelines, the normal numbers will be sus- pended. Within Arizona, the largest of its allocation is pumped from Lake Havasu for the Central Arizona Project - about 1.42 million acre-feet in 2000. Other uses in Arizona include the Colo- rado River Indian Reservation, the Wellton- Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District, the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District and the Yuma County Water Users Associations. California's apportionment is divided by the 1931 Seven Party Agreement. The priorities established by the agreement left Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's Colorado I River Aqueduct less than half full. The top three agricultural priorities under the agreement total 3.85 million acre-feet of the 4.4 million acre-feet total apportionment and this has led to some squabbling among the parties. The pending quantification settlement is intended to help resolve some of those differences and includes a large ag-to-urban water transfer that would reduce the 3.85 apportionment to 3.47 by the year 2012. For Nevada, the bulk of its 300,000 acre-feet apportionment is diverted through the Saddle Island diversion of the Robert B. Griffith Water Project to several Las Vegas Valley water pur- veyors who are members of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Interstate water