WSPC12491 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

OOJ257 Six. State Proposal Straw Man Draft Includes Fassett and Mutz comments 11/4/98 17.331 maf runoff above Lake Powell. Technical studies have named this strategy ''70R.'' In recent years, the Bureau of Reclamation has investigated a number of surplus strategies including "spill avoidance," "flood control avoidance," and "shortage avoidance." All of these methods have positives and negatives associated with them. The Six States believe that the ''70R'' strategy is the best for use during this tempouryinterim period because the water provided as surplus is incremental to the previous tier of a full M&I surplus. In other words, the surplus strategy is not necessary to provide additional water for high value M&I uses since those uses have already been met. The increment of use that could be available above M&I would likely be for adffitional groundwater banking and perhaps additional agricultural water in California, Arizona, or Mexico. The Six . States do not believe it is prudent to apply surplus strategies that make additional water available based on statistical analysis which they believe prcscmswill present a higher risk, if the incremental water benefits are likely to be limited to thosesuch purposes. The Six State proposal will make water available for thosesuch purposes in years when the "70R" strategy indicates that additional water should be released for beneficial use in lieu of potential release through the flood control criteria. If incremental surplus volumes are limited under this tier, priority must be given to groundwater banking for future M&I needs within California over agricultural uses. Agricultural uses in California should be limited to those years when the ''70R'' criteria results in large surplus volumes and there is a high degree of certainty that water would otherwise be subject to spill. 14 \ \1LY.v\,J ~l\j . l~ / ~l' d (, ., )91 nO . \) - ~ :\v \' \ ~ ....,,' \ , JY.I fV \\ tl