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21 Reclamation (Reclamation), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to discuss in detail their specific water-related activities in the basin. Bill Ruth, the Federal Chairman of the Commission attended the federal agency presentation portion of the meeting. The New Mexico Engineer Adviser, as in 2003, declined to sign the 2004 Compact accounting sheets because of a disagreement that arose during the fall of 2002 regarding the monthly reduction of accrued credit water in storage in the Rio Grande Project. Although accrued credit water evaporation has been calculated on a monthly basis since the early 1990's, prior to that time evaporation calculations and credit and debit reductions for evaporation occurred annually. New Mexico reports it became concemed in November 2002, upon leaming that Reclamation planned to change its 2003 Rio Grande Project operations from those conducted in the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's due to the change in reporting on the Compact accounting sheets that began in 1990. The Engineer Advisers agreed that a resolution of this issue may be reached after additional discussion and will explore this issue further in 2005. New Mexico - Texas Relinauishment Aareement In 2003 New Mexico offered and Texas accepted a relinquishment of a portion of New Mexico's accrued credits then held in Project Storage in Elephant Butte Reservoir. On April 23, 2003 the two states reached agreement for New Mexico to relinquish to Texas a total of 217,500 acre-feet of accrued credits, with 122,500 acre-feet of that amount accepted at that time, and the balance (up to 95,000 acre-feet if available) to be accepted on March 1, 2004. Due to under-delivery and evaporation, the total relinquishment over the two years actually totaled 175,500 acre-feet. The relinquishment allowed the storage of a like amount of water in post-1929 reservoirs in New Mexico upstream of Elephant Butte Reservoir over as many years as necessary to capture it when the storage prohibition of Article VII is in effect. A total of 146,143 acre-feet of relinquished water was stored in 2003 and 2004 (88,270 acre-feet in 2003; 57,873 acre-feet in 2004), leaving a balance of 29,357 acre-feet to be captured in future years. At the end of 2004,20,218 acre-feet of relinquished water remained in storage in EI Vado Reservoir and 253 acre-feet in Nichols Reservoir. Colorado - Texas Relinauishment Aareement Colorado began 2004 with 1,200 acre-feet of accrued credit. Native water was stored in Platoro Reservoir, a post-Compact reservoir, when storage was prohibited under Article VII of the Compact. This storage occurred during the period November 5, 2003 through March 24, 2004 while the release from the reservoir was reduced for normal winter operations. The maximum release possible through the bypass valves under the reservoir head conditions at that time is approximately eight cubic feet per second. The