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Western States Water Council Legal Committee Washington, DC March 27,2006 . seven years. That would be intentionally created surplus. It was different and unique. The 7 basin states consented to the agreement. This gives them seven years to put another project in place. Herb Guenther: This is the first time in 84 years that the 7 basin states have been on the same page on a major issue. Consultants will be doing a contract. The 7 states are able to look at the proposal of the consultants. The document will last until 2025, so it's interim, but it can be extended by the states. Should shortages take place, they have criteria for what would be done. It was helpful to coordinate the operations on both ends of the river. Garland Erbele: There is a proposal to line the All American canal, and how much water is that anticipated to save by doing that? Herb Guenther: I believe the number is about 100,000 acre-feet. There is a lot of seepage and the Mexicans have sued over the loss of that seepage of water. Larry Anderson: The All American canal for those that don't know, is parallel to the MexicanlU.s. border and many times it's only inside the U.S. Border line a few feet. Rod Kuharich: The All American canal was built to move the water out of Mexico because the canal originally ran in and out, crossed the border, so now we've almost come to full circle again because it's the groundwater seepage that they want to intercept as it makes it's way to Mexico. These things continue to resurface. . Larry Anderson: We would be happy to allow the ground water seepage to go to Mexico, if they counted that as part of the obligation. But they are not. Larry Anderson brought up that the Utah legislature had just ended. The Division of Water Resources was interested in 3 pieces of legislation. Part of the Division's construction money comes from sales tax inthe State,.1/16 % of the sales tax. The amount was capped at $17.5M. They went back this year and took the cap off. They directed that all of the money would go to the Division of Water Resources. Basically $6.5M. They must first use the money towards 2 projects: 1) Lake Powell pipeline, and (2) to begin work on the Bear River Project. They can use it to begin acquiring land, etc. It made the Lake Powell project a state project, and not a Washington County project. There is also an amendment to Bear River Development Act that allowed us to begin work on the Bear River Project because at one time we couldn't until we had 70% of the water sold. The amendment allows us to begin some of these preliminary investigations without having to sign a contract for the water yet. The Bear River Project would be owned by the state. Regarding the Lake Powell Project, the state would own it, but has the option to transfer the project once it's paid off. Rod Kuharich: Many of you know that we completed a little over a year ago the Statewide Water Supply Initiative, which identifies significant shortages by the year 2030 in the Colorado, Arkansas andthe Platte River Basin. The study is on our web page. We have now started phase two of that study looking at such things as water conservation and agricultural fallowing (rotating fallowing for M&I use and ag). It . should be completed some time next year. 4