Expert Report of D. Randolph Seahom and Exhibits

Home Browse Search

Consumptive Uses and Losses 1 49 PROVISIONAL UPPER COLORADO RIVER BASIN CONSUMPTIVE USES AND LOSSES 2001 -2005 INTRODUCTION The Colorado River System is composed of portions of seven States -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. It has a drainage area of about 242,000 square miles and represents about one - fifteenth of the area of the United States. This report incorporates provisional annual estimates of consumptive uses and losses of water from the Upper Colorado River Basin from 2001 through 2005. Currently, this report contains data through 2004, and will be updated when data is available. Wherever available, water use reports prepared in accordance with legal requirements concerning the operation of the Colorado River were utilized Base data needed to estimate onsite consumptive uses were taken largely from existing reports and studies and from ongoing programs. Where current data were not available, estimated values were developed by . various techniques and reasoned judgment. In general, methodology followed the techniques normally used within the basin for estimating water use. Nothing in this report is intended to interpret the provisions of the Colorado River Compact (45 Stat. 1057), the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (63 Stat. 31), the Water Treaty of 1944 with the United Mexican States (Treaty Series 994; 59 Stat. 1219), the decree entered by the Supreme Court of the United States in Arizona vs. California, et al. (376 U.S. 340), the Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057), the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act (54 Stat. 774; 43 U.S.C. 618a), the Colorado River Storage Project Act, (70 Stat. 105;;43'U.S.C. 620), or the Colorado River Basin Project Act (82 Stat. 885; 43 U.S.C. 1501). STUDY REPORTING' AREAS The drainage area of the Upper Colorado River Basin in the United States is approximately 110,000 square miles. The river originates in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, flows southwest about 1,400 miles, and terminates at Lee Ferry, Arizona. The basin consists of portions of five states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The drainage area was divided into three subbasins for the purposes of this report. The Colorado River Compact, signed November 24, 1922, was established because the Upper Basin States were concerned that any storage on the river would be put to use more �J