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<br />OOJ3'83 <br /> <br />The Honorable Gale Norton <br />Secretary of the Interior <br />Speech to the Colorado River Water Users Association <br />Las Vegas, Nevada <br />December 16, 2002 <br /> <br />It is a pleasure to be with all of you who share a common comminnent to the future of me Colorado <br />River. '" <br /> <br />I amjoined today by Assistant, Secretary Bennett Raley and Commissioner John Keys. I rely on Bennett <br />and John to carry out the Department"s responsibilities with respect to the waters of the Colorado River. <br />They have my full faith and confidence. <br /> <br />Meeting here in Las Vegas, the city of gaming, the thought comes to mind that we have been involved in <br />a high-stakes poker game On the issue that is on everyone's mind, and that is the California 4.4 Plan. <br /> <br />The stakes are high, and each party is studying their hand. The drama is building. If this were a game. it <br />would be time to l?-y our cards on the table and demonstrate that the Department of the Interior has not <br />been bluffing. However. this is not a game, it is serious ?usiness. But I will lay our cards on the table <br />here this morning. <br /> <br />Our common future is shaped by record drought and population growth within the Basin. These factors <br />herald a new era of limits on Colorado River water use. These limits are shaping the decisions that will <br />guide the future course of river management. <br /> <br />While increasing water demand is causing change, what must not chaIige is our commitment to honor <br />compacts, decrees 'and agreements. Otherwise the legal foundation upOn which this river is administered <br />will be at risk. <br /> <br />We are at a turning point in the history of the Colorado River. <br /> <br />For the first time, a Secretary.ofthe Interior faces the need to enforce the limits confinned by the U.S. <br />Supreme Court in the historic Arizona \T. California litigation. ' <br /> <br />The issue is not whether but wben California will live within its'apportionment of 4.4 million acre-feet <br />~~~ ' <br /> <br />It is important that not JUSt you attending this conference, but that all who live in the seven Colorado <br />River Basin states, understand how we anived at this critical point in shaping the future of Colorado <br />River policy. <br /> <br />In 1929, California agreed to limit its annual use of water from the Colorado River to 4.4 million' acre- <br />feet. Yet over the ye~s, Califomia has grown accustomed to using more .than 5 million acre-feet of water <br />per year. <br /> <br />Two factors made,rhis additional water available. Other states were not using their full apportionments <br />and, second, reservoirs were generally full and surplus water was available. <br /> <br />That has changed.' <br /> <br />CRWUA -Dee, 16, :ZOQ] <br /> <br />Page 1 of 7 <br />