Laserfiche WebLink
<br />{}u233S <br /> <br />Informational Briefing <br />State of Colorado Joint Agricultural Committee <br />March 15,2005 <br /> <br />? <br /> <br />Statement of Mark Limbaugh <br />Deputy Commissioner - U.S. Bureau of Reclamation <br />Denver, Colorado <br /> <br />Thank you for inviting the Deparbnent of the Interior to attend this briefing. On behalf of <br />Secretary Norton, we would like to thank you for this opportunity to address the current state of the <br />drought in the Colorado River Basin. <br /> <br />My name is Mark Limbaugh, and I serve as the Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of <br />Reclamation. With me here today are Rick Gold, who serves as the Bureau's Regional Director for the <br />Upper Colorado Region, and Bob Johnson, who serves as the Bureau's Regional Director for the Lower <br />Colorado Region. In addition, Bob Snow, of the Department's Solicitor's Office is here with us today. <br /> <br />In our briefing to you today, we are prepared to provide you with information on the status of <br />operations in the Colorado River Basin, the impact of the current drought on reservoir storage in the <br />system, and the Deparbnent's current and anticipated efforts to address the drought. We will also reserve <br />time to address any questions you may have. <br /> <br />In the Colorado River Basin, we are c1l;rrently benefitting from the vision and planning of our <br />predecessors to construct a massive storage system that has the capacity to store nearly four years worth of <br />the flow of the River. This storage, which was nearly full in 1999, now stands at approximately 50% of <br />capacity as a result of the worst 5-year drought since recordkeeping began nearly a century ago. Scientists <br />at the U.S. Geological Survey believe that based upon tree ring and other paleo-indicators, this drought <br />may be the worst 5-year drought in the past 500 years. <br /> <br />Rick Gold and Bob Johnson will provide more detailed information on the status of reservoir <br />operations in a moment. Before they do, I wanted to briefly highlight the continued importance of <br />Federal-State cooperation to address issues regarding management of the Colorado River. <br /> <br />The development of the system to manage the Colorado River over the past - often referred to as <br />"The Law ofthe River" -- involves two very distinct systems. In the Upper Basin of the Colorado, the <br />role of the States of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah are defined by the interplay of two <br />Compacts - the Colorado River Compact of 1922 and the Upper Colorado River Compact of 1948. As is <br />the case of most of the Reclamation west, the states play the primary role regarding the control, <br />appropriation, use and distribution of the waters of the Upper Colorado Basin. The Deparbnent, through <br />Reclamation, does have a pivotal role as operator of the vast storage system from Glen Canyon Dam to <br />the headwaters of the basin as part of the Colorado River Storage Project. <br /> <br />In contrast, in the Lower Basin of the Colorado, based on a unique legal history, the Secretary <br />administers these functions by Congressional direction in the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928, as <br />confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 in the historic case of Arizona v. California. <br /> <br />What unites these two basins is a close working partnership between the Secretary of the Interior <br />and the Seven states within the Basin. This working partnership is unique in the United States _ and has <br />led to historic agreements and significant progress in recent years. While I will ~ot takelup this <br />Committee's time with details, I would like to note just a few highlights: <br /> <br />In 1992 Congress directed that "the Secretary shall operate Glen Canyon Dam ... and exercise <br /> <br />l <br />