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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I' <br />I <br />I <br />I: <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />OJ2331 <br /> <br />Seven-Party Agreement for 5,362,000 acre-feet of water and entered into a master contract <br />with the State of Nevada in 1942 for 300,000 acre-feet of water and with the State of <br />Arizona in 1944 for the 2,800,000 acre-feet of water. These actions effectively allocated <br />8,462,000 acre-feet of the lower Colorado River basin's water for use in the United States by <br />1944. A detailed description of the process for handling water orders. is presented below in <br />part C.1.d.. <br /> <br />The level of Secretarial discretion, if any, related to a water entitlement is directly related to <br />the type of entitlement. For example, the Supreme Court-decreed entitlements with the five <br />Indian Tribes, FWS, and the National Park Service (NPS) have never been incorporated into <br />administrative agreements or contracts. In fact, as long as the water is used at the decreed <br />place of use and those entitlement holders do not request a change or a new benefit, the <br />Secretary has extremely limited control over these entitlements. Other present perfected <br />right entitlement holders, as listed in the Supreme Court decree, mayor may not have an <br />administrative agreement (contract) with the Secretary; the terms and conditions of such a <br />contract for present perfected rights are few. <br /> <br />Therefore, the amount of control or discretion the Secretary has over anyone entitlement <br />ranges from very limited to extremely limited, varies by the type of the entitlement, and <br />depends upon the execution date of the contract and its associated terms and conditions. <br />Secretarial actions must not conflict with the contract terms or the mandates of the Court <br />decree from which the Secretary is severally enjoined. <br /> <br />The Secretary may have limited discretion over such conditions as non-use, non-beneficial <br />use, or water conservation. However, the Secretary has no effective meaningful discretion <br />over meeting an entitlement holder's valid request for water for beneficial use. This holds <br />true for a municipality, irrigation district, Indian Tribe, or wildlife refuge. The Secretary <br />may have limited flexibility regarding when water is released from Lake Mead, based on a <br />minor amount of storage capacity in the downstream reservoirs for re-regulation. <br /> <br />The Regional Director of Reclamation's Lower Colorado Region, on behalf of the Secretary <br />in his Watermaster role, may make annual determinations relating to water conservation <br />measures and delivery, distribution, and use of Colorado River water pursuant to 43 CFR <br />Part 417. Deliveries of Colorado River water will not exceed those reasonably required for <br />beneficial use. <br /> <br />The following actions are discretionary: <br /> <br />. determination of which contractors will be consulted (may exclude contractors and <br />permittees of small quantities of water and contractors for municipal and industrial <br />water), <br /> <br />. determination that water orders are, or are not, within that reasonably required for <br />beneficial use, and <br /> <br />25 <br />