20b

• Board Meeting Date: 9/18/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

- 24-

The US. and Mexican authorities have agreed that cooperative, innovative and holistic
measures should be considered to ensure that the Colorado River is able to continue to
meet environmental, agricultural and urban demands of both nations.

The Mexican authorities stressed the importance of ensuring that the needs of all
stakeholders in the lower portion of the Colorado River are understood and considered by
leaders of both nations.

The US. authorities acknowledged the growing national and international focus on the
Colorado River as a result of the ongoing historic drought in the basin. The US.
authorities also noted recent innovative agreements among the seven US. states that rely
on the Colorado River.

The authorities from both nations expressed their interest in order to reinforce bilateral
cooperation regarding issues related to the lower portion of the Colorado River;
acknowledged areas of concern regarding water conservation actions, while highlighting
emerging innovative and comprehensive concepts that could be used to benefit water
users in both the US. and Mexico.
In that regard, authorities from both nations agreed that the IBWC, a treaty-based
bilateral organization with over a century of successful collaboration, should be utilized
to expedite discussions in coming weeks to fmiher Colorado River cooperation. Among
the issues expected to be addressed are:

- continued needs of both nations for water for urban, agricultural and environmental
purposes, the study of the hydrological system and potential impacts of climate change,
including the effects of the ongoing historic Colorado River drought;

- environmental priorities, including Colorado River Delta habitat protection and
enhancement;

- opportunities for water conservation, storage and supply augmentation, such as seawater
desalination and reuse; strategies aimed to ease variations in the Colorado River system;

- potential opportunities for more efficient Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico.

COLORADO RIVER WATER USE: As of July 1,2007, storage in the four major Upper
Basin reservoirs increased by 359,400 acre-feet and storage in the Lower Basin reservoirs
decreased by 274,300 acre-feet during June 2007. Total system active storage as of July 5 was
33.686 million acre-feet (MAP), or 56 percent of capacity, which is 1.244 MAP less than one year
ago. (Upper Basin reservoirs increased by 0.181 MAP, and Lower Basin reservoirs decreased by
1.425 MAP.)

The end-of-year measure for 2005 California agricultural consumptive use of Colorado River water
under the first three priorities and the sixth priority of the 1931 Ca1{fbrnia Seven Party
Agreement was reported as 3.524 MAP; and for 2005, the end-of-year measure was 3.581 MAP.
The target under the Interim Surplus Guidelines (ISG) for the end of2003 was 3.740 MAP, and
the target for 2006 is 3.640 MAP, thus California was in compliance with the ISG through

Flood Protection. Water Project Planning and Finance. Sn-eam and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation Planning