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MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT <br />CONCERNING THE UPPER COLORADO RIVER BASIN FUND <br />This Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is entered into effective as of - Jar,. 2011, by <br />and among the States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming; the Colorado River <br />Energy Distributors Association, Inc. (CREDA); the Department of the Interior, Bureau of <br />Reclamation; and the Department of Energy, Western Area Power Administration (the <br />"Parties "). <br />RECITALS <br />The Recitals set forth below are material facts that are relevant to and form the basis for the <br />agreement set forth herein. <br />I. Parties <br />Title 43, section 620d(e) of the United States Code requires approval of a state's "legally <br />constituted authority" before that state may waive its right to have its Upper Colorado River <br />Basin Fund apportionment spent in another state. <br />A. State of Colorado. <br />1. Pursuant to the executive authority of the Governor of the state of Colorado as <br />delegated by letter dated October 27, 2010, the Director of the Colorado Water <br />Conservation Board, Jennifer L. Gimbel, is authorized to negotiate and enter into this <br />agreement. <br />2. Section 37 -60 -106, subsections (e), (h), (i), and (k) of the Colorado Revised Statutes <br />empowers and charges the Colorado Water Conservation Board "[t]o cooperate with <br />the United States and the agencies thereof, and with other states for the purpose of <br />bringing about the greater utilization of the water of the state of Colorado...; ... [t]o <br />investigate and assist in formulating a response to the plans, purposes, procedures, <br />requirements, laws, proposed laws, or other activities of the federal government and <br />other states which affect or might affect the use or development of the water <br />resources of this state; [t]o confer with and appear before the officers, <br />representatives, boards, bureaus, committees, commissions, or other agencies of <br />other states, or of the federal government, for the purpose of protecting and <br />asserting the authority, interests, and rights of the state of Colorado and its citizens <br />with respect to the waters of the interstate streams in this state; ...[and] [i]n general, <br />to take such action and have such powers as are incidental to the foregoing specific <br />provisions and to the general purposes of this article." <br />B. State of New Mexico. Pursuant to § 72 -14 -3 New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, the <br />New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission is authorized to investigate water supply, to <br />develop, to conserve, to protect and to do any and all other things necessary to protect, <br />conserve and develop the waters and stream systems of the State of New Mexico, <br />interstate or otherwise. The Interstate Stream Commission also is authorized to institute <br />or cause to be instituted in the name of the State of New Mexico any and all negotiations <br />and /or legal proceedings as in its judgment are necessary to fulfill its statutory mandate. <br />