Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Western States Water Council <br />Legal Committee <br /> <br />Sioux Falls, South Dakota <br />May 3, 2007 <br /> <br />judicial determination so long as the talking period is in play. This is the first document, at least that I know <br />of, in legal history of the Colorado River since 1922, where the states have actually made promises to each <br />other. <br /> <br />Colorado <br /> <br />Rod Kuharich: Nevada has clearly reached their limit in taking water from the Colorado River, even <br />though their installed capacity was over a million acre feet. Arizona was taking their limit and California <br />had been limited to 4.4 million acre feet in the compact. Basically, the lower basin was more than maxed <br />out. That meant that every acre footthat was continuing to be developed in the lower basin was an acre foot <br />out ofthe allocation to the upper basin. We felt we needed to do something. A storage account was created <br />in Lake Mead for the lower basin states totaling 2.1 million acre feet. This is what's called "incentively <br />created surplus," where the lower basin states now had an incentive to put water into actual savings. That <br />in effect aides the upper basin and how the two reservoirs are operated in conjunction now that they are <br />equalized. Will it create peace on the river? I don't know. <br /> <br />Hal Simpson: The Black Canyon National Monument was established in 1933 and became a national <br />park in the 1990's. It received a state adjudicated water right with a 1933 priority, but the water right was <br />not quantified. The Aspinall unit required the Colorado River Storage Project Act to build upstream ofthe <br />Black Canyon three mainstream reservoirs to capture over 800,000 acre feet of water. In 2001, they filed <br />to quantify the water right on the Gunnison River. That drew well over 300 objections. In 2003, the State <br />of Colorado and the federal government entered into an agreement to quantify the water right at 300 cubic <br />feet per second. The Water Conservation Board filed for a large in stream flow water right that had a 2001 <br />priority. At the same time that agreement was filed and signed, the federal government submitted 33 <br />stipulations to the local water court. They had started a process to remove objectors by entering into a <br />stipulation. The stipulation had a number of provisions. No one in the state seemed aware of the <br />stipulations and they sat there during the time the agreement was signed. Later, all the environmental <br />interests got in on a petition in federal court saying that the federal government had it's fiduciary <br />responsibilities to protect that national park water right. Last fall, Judge Brimmer in Wyoming ruled in <br />federal court that the federal government had in fact violated its obligation and given away the department's <br />water right and had not followed the NEP A process and basically it was remanded back to local water court. <br />The federal government then begin negotiating and passing out another 80 stipulations to these junior rights, <br />and so the State of Colorado's Division of Water Resources and the Water Conservation Board stepped up <br />and filed a motion with the water court saying those are illegal. The politicians in the basin got very upset. <br />It's gotten really ugly. Its very contentious and political. <br /> <br />OTHER MATTERS <br /> <br />There being no other matters before the Legal Committee, the meeting was adjourned. <br /> <br />',,--/ <br /> <br />11 <br />