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<br />4. Flows of Colorado River <br /> <br />Table 3 on pages 22 and 23 shows the estimated virgin flow of the <br />Colorado River at Lee Ferry, Arizona for each water year from 1896 through <br />1995. Column (4) of tbe table shows the average virgin flow for any given <br />year within the period computed through water year 1995. Column (5) <br />shows the average virgin flow for a given year within the period computed <br />since water year 1896. Column (6) shows the average virgin flow for each <br />progressive ten-year period beginning with the ten-year period ending on <br />September 30, 1905. The difference between the virgin flow for a given year <br />and the average flow over the 100-year period, 1896 through 1995, is <br />shown in Column (7). <br /> <br />Article IIl(d) of the Colorado River Compact stipulates that "the States of <br />the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be <br />depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of ten <br />consecutive years reckoned in a continuing progressive series beginning with <br />the first day of October next succeeding the ratification of this Compact." <br />Prior to the storage of water in the Colorado River Storage Project reservoirs, <br />which began in 1962, the flow of the river at Lee Ferry in any ten consecu- <br />tive years was greatly in excess of the 75,OOO,000acre-feet required by the <br />Compact. Beginning in 1962, Colorado River Storage Project reservoirs have <br />regulated the river above Glen Canyon Dam. Table 4, on page 24, shows the <br />historic flow at Lee Ferry for the period 1953 through 1995. The historic <br />flow for each progressive ten-year period from 1953 through 1995, beginning <br />with the ten-year period ending September 30, 1962, the commencement of <br />storage in Colorado River Storage Project reservoirs, is shown in Column (3). <br /> <br />In each consecutive ten-year period, the total flow equaled or exceeded <br />the 75,000,000 acre-feet required by the Compact. The flow at Lee Ferry <br />during the ten-year period ending September 30, 1995 was 96,555,000 <br />acre-feet. <br /> <br />The charts on pages 26 and 27 illustrate some of the pertinent historical <br />facts related to the amounts of water produced by the Colorado River System <br />above Lee Ferry, Arizona, the compact division point between the Upper and <br />Lower Colorado River Basins. The first chart, on page 26, is entitled <br />Colorado River Flow at Lee Ferry, Arizona. The top of each vertical bar <br />represents the estimated virgin flow of the river, i.e., the flow of the river in <br />millions of acre-feet past Lee Ferry for a given year had it not been depleted <br />by activities of man. Each vertical bar has two components: The lower <br />shaded part represents the estimated or measured historic flow at Lee Ferry, <br />and the difference between the two sections of the bar in any given year <br />represents the stream depletion, or the amount of water estimated to have <br />been removed by man from the virgin supply upstream from Lee Ferry. It is <br />worth noting that in 1977 and again in 1981 the historic flow at Lee Ferry <br />exceeded <br /> <br />13 <br />