9674 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

COLORADO RIVER COMPACT WATER DEVELOPMENT PROJECTION November 2, 1995 FINAL REPORT Page 9 Colorado ....... . .........................51.75% Utah .................................23.00% Wyoming .................................14.00% New Mexico .................................11.25% Under this formula, if 7.5 MAF were available to the Upper Basin annually, Colorado's apportionment would provide for the consumptive use of 3,855,375 acre feet of water annually. The 1948 Compact also: a) provides that consumptive uses under the 1922 La Plata River Compact shall be charged to the apportionments made to the states under the 1948 Compact; b) apportions water between Colorado and Wyoming on the Little Snake River in a manner that gives preference to pre-Compact water rights; c) requires that Colorado will not cause the flow of the Yampa River at the Maybell gaging station to be depleted below an aggregate of 5 MAF for any period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series beginning in 1949; and d) provides that any of the Upper Basin states may exceed the basic apportionment provided that it does not deprive another state of its apportionment. Coordinated Long Range Operating Criteria (1970): The Coordinated Long-Range Operating Criteria for Colorado River Reservoirs were promulgated pursuant to Section 602(a) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act (1968) by the Secretary of the Interior and noticed in the Federal Register on June 10, 1970. These criteria control the coordinated long-range operation of storage reservoirs and projects in the Colorado River Basin constructed under the authority of the Colorado River Storage Project Act (i.e., Powell, Flaming Gorge, Aspinall, Navajo and participating projects), the Boulder Canyon Project Act (i.e., Lake Mead), and the Colorado River Basin Project Act (i.e., Central Arizona Project). The operating criteria also require a determination by the Secretary of the Interior of the amount of water required to be in storage in order to assure that the beneficial consumptive use of water in the Upper Basin is not impaired ("602(a) storage requirements"). If active storage is less than the 602(a) storage requirements or if active storage in Lake Powell is less than active storage in Lake Mead, then the release from Lake Powell for the coming year will be 8.23 MAF. However, if Lake Powell storage exceeds 602(a) storage requirements and is higher than Lake Mead's, then releases greater than 8.23 MAF will be made to maintain the active storage in Mead and Powell at approximately equal amounts (equalization). III. BASIN CHARACTERISTICS & CURRENT HYDROLOGY The "natural flow" (sometimes also referred to as "virgin flow") of a river or stream, as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is the undepleted and unregulated flow which would have occurred absent the activities of man. Table 1 shows the natural flow from each major tributary of the Colorado River within Colorado as developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for use in their CRSS planning model. The average annual natural flow of the