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. e e KEY TERMS FOR QUANTIFICATION SETTLEMENT WHITE PAPER! BACKGROUND Common to all Colorado River Basin states is the right to develop, manage, and use their Colorado River water apportionments in a manner which most effectively meets their needs and most efficiently uses their Colorado River resources, consistent with The Law of the River. California is finalizing a plan to optimize its Colorado River water use within its basic annual apportionment and reduce its River water use in non- surplus years. Participants in this process include the Colorado River Board of California and its major represented agencies: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego County Water Authority (SDCW A), Palo Verde Irrigation District (PVID), Imperial Irrigation District (IID), and Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD). The plan calls for core conservation and transfer programs, improved river management and operations, water exchanges, conjunctive use and storage programs, and dry-year transfers. In order to accomplish these programs, it is helpful to further quantify the agricultural agencies' priorities to Colorado River water. Under California's existing priority system, when California is limited to 4.4 million acre-feet per year, up to 3.85 million acre-feet is available to agricultural agencies, comprised ofthe first three priorities under California's 1931 Seven Party Agreement on Colorado River water use. However, as between agricultural agencies, there is no express quantity limitation; instead there are only service area and purpose of use provisions. The Secretary of the Interior requested a further quantification of agricultural water uses in order to provide the quantum baseline by which conservation savings for conservation programs and transfers can be measured. California's annual use of Colorado River water has varied from 4.5 to 5.2 million acre-feet over the last ten years. This is the single largest source of water to southern California, supportiag over 16 million people and nearly 800,000 acres of some of the most productive farmland in the nation. Under a normal flow condition on the Colorado River, California has a basic apportionment of 4.4 million acre-feet per year, and under a surplus condition has an apportionment of 50 percent of the surplus available to the three lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California). In addition, California may use water apportioned to but unused by Arizona and Nevada. California's historic and current use of up to 5.2 million acre-feet per year stems from the occurrence of surplus conditions on the Colorado River and unused apportionments by Arizona and Nevada. The use of Colorado River water in the other six Basin states has increased to the point that California can no longer rely on the occurrence of surplus conditions or on Arizona and Nevada not fully using their apportionments. Since 1964, California has made significant investments to offset the eventual reduction in available Colorado River water to its normal flow apportionment of 4.4 million acre-feet per year. These investments include developing additional sources of imported water, conservation, surface and groundwater storage, local supplies, conjunctive use programs, reclaimed water projects, and recovery and treatment of contaminated groundwater. While these investments have significantly increased supplies and reduced demand for imported water, they have not been adequate to offset the reduction of Colorado River water to 4.4 million acre-feet per year. This reality has fueled further efforts to maximize the beneficial use of California's River water through cooperative Colorado River conservation programs and transfers of conserved water. The challenge is to effect these changes and still maintain the productivity of major urban and agricultural centers. KEY TERMS FOR QUANTIFICATION SETTLEMENT (KEY TERMS) On October 18, 1999, the respective boards of CVWD, IID, and MWD and the State of Cali fomi a approved the Key Terms as the basis for obtaining public input and completing legal documents that will 1 Prepared jointly by the Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, San Diego County Water Authority, and The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, November 1999