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• Board Meeting Date: 9/18/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Support
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Agenda Item 18
May 22-23,2007 Board Meeting
Page 9 of 10

System below Lee Ferry is sutlicient to meet the apportionments to the Lower Basin
provided for in Articles III (a) and III (b) of the Colorado River Compact; and

WHEREAS, it is the position of the Upper Colorado River Commission and the
Upper Division States that the obligation of the Upper Basin under Article II1(c) of the
Colorado River Compact to deliver watcr toward the Mcxican Treaty obligation does not
require the delivery at Lee Ferry of 0.75 million acre-feet of water annually; and

WHEREAS, the Upper Colorado River Commission anticipates that the Upper
Division States will take all actions necessary to ensure that all Upper Basin States have
access to their respective apportionments as specified in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Compact; and

WHEREAS, the Upper Colorado River Commission on June 19, 2003, resolved
that: (I) "the States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, support and to the
extent necessary consent to the diversion of water from the Upper Basin for use in the
Lower Basin solely within New Mexico via the proposed Navajo-Gallup Water Supply
Project; provided, that any water so diverted by said project to the Lower Basin portion of
New Mexico, being a depletion of water at Lee Ferry, shall be a part of the consumptive
use apportionment made to the State of New Mexico by Article III (a) of the Upper
Colorado River Compact;" and (2) "the Upper Colorado River Commission supports
such Congressional action as may be nccessary to authorize the Navajo-Gallup Water
Supply Project."

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Upper Colorado River
Commission, that the Commission supports Congressional action to: (I) approve the
Settlement Agreement; (2) authorize the proposed Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project;
and (3) approve the proposed Settlemcnt Contract fDr the Navajo Nation's uses in Ncw
Mexico from the Nav~jo Reservoir supply under the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project
and the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that while the Upper Colorado River
Commission does not endorse all of the study assumptions used by the Bureau of
Reclamation in its May 2006 dmft hydrologic determination, including an assumption of
a 6 percent allowable overall shortage, and specifically disagrees with the modeling
assumption of a minimum Upper Basin delivery of 8.25 million acre-feet annually at Lee
Ferry, the Commission supports a determination by the Secretary of the Interior that at
least 5.76 million acre-feet of water is available annually for use by the Upper Basin,
exclusive of rcservoir evaporation at Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the
Aspinall Unit rescrvoirs of the Colorado River Storage Project.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Upper Colorado River Commission
supports a detennination by thc Secretary of the Interior that sufficient water is
reasonably likely (0 be available to fulfill the proposed Settlement Contract fDr the
Navajo Nation's uses in New Mexico from the Navajo Rescrvoir supply undcr the
Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project and the Navajo Indian Irrigation Projcct, in addition

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Flood Protection. Water Project Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation Planning