7416 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

CHAPTER VII OPERA77NG CRITERIA A. Background The "Operating Criteria" provided for by Section 602 of the Colorado River Basin Project Act was an outgrowth of conferences held by representatives of the Upper and Lower Basins which resulted in a new draft of Basin Project bill, H.R.4671, agreed upon by them on September 20, 1965. Among its new features was a provision that the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the seven Basin States and parties to contracts with the United States, develop long-range Operating Criteria for reservoirs on the Colorado River System. The bill also provided for reimbursement to the Upper Basin Fund for money paid from the fund for Hoover Dam power deficiencies caused by the filling of Lake Powell and reiterated an earlier draft provision that Upper Basin rights to Colorado River water shall not be impaired by any temporary use of water in the Lower Basin. It did not, however, provide guidelines or an order of priorities for the release of water. A major point of contention between the two Basins in the development of the Colorado River Basin Project Act were the details of the Operating Criteria that would govern the relationship of storage in Lake Powell to storage in Lake Mead. The Upper Basin's problem with respect to legislation to construct a Lower Basin project predicted, according to the Upper Basin, upon presently unused water apportioned to the Upper Basin is: how do the upstream States recapture their water when it will be needed for their own resource development, some of which is imminent (see page 49, Seventeenth Annual Report, Upper Col- orado River Commission, September 20, 1965). The Upper Basin States were concerned that the operation of the reservoirs could be detrimental to their interests because of: (1) Lack of specific operating procedures to the Filling Criteria for Lake Powell, promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior on April 4, 1962; e.g., the right of Upper Division States to accumulate hold-over storage; and (2) Lack of official interpretation of certain provisions of the Colorado River Compact, particularly Article ID, paragraphs (c), (d) and (e). Article II1(c) of the Compact provides that the Mexican Treaty obligation be met first out of surplus water and then by sharing the burden of any deficiencies equally between the Upper and Lower Basins. Article M(d) of the Compact provides that the States of the Upper Division shall not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below 75 maf in any consecutive 10-year period. Article III(e) of the Compact provides that the States of the Upper Division shall not withhold water and the States of the Lower Division shall not require the delivery of water which cannot reasonably be applied to domestic and agricultural uses. The objective of Section 601 of H.R.4671, which initially provided for the Operating Criteria, was to avoid uncertainties caused by varying interpretations of the Compact and to provide for a sharing between Basins of the benefits of wet years and the burden of drawdowns during droughts. A new draft of bill was negotiated and tentative agreement reached on a bill entitled "Recommended Revision" of H.R.4671, dated Febru- ary 22, 1966 (see pages 35-61, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Upper Colorado River Commission, September 30, 1966). Hearings before the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation were held May 9-10, 1966. The bill under consideration approved by it, H.R.4671, Committee Print No. 19, dated April 25, 1966, included the following changes, among others, from the earlier September 30, 1965, draft. The Secretary would promulgate criteria for coordinated long-range operation of reservoirs, such criteria to follow specified orders of priority in and release of water from Lake Powell. At the same time the Upper Basin rights to the consumptive use of water apportioned to that Basin by the Colorado River Compact would not be prejudiced or reduced by any use thereof in the Lower Basin. A-1