Upper Colorado River Basin Fund 2007

• Description: Upper Colorado River Basin Fund 2007
• State: CO
• Title: Upper Colorado River Basin Fund 2007
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Litigation

power costs and its municipal water costs, and interest on its own power and
municipal water investments;
7. that after all the costs of (6) are paid from the revenues of that participating project,
if there are excess revenues remaining in the Basin Fund that were produced from
its own power and /or municipal water facilities; those excess revenues are credited
with the Basin Fund for use within the State wherein the project is located before
the percentage apportionments to the States of (5) above are applied;
8. that excess power revenues credited within the Basin Fund to State "A" may be
used for repaying costs of irrigation projects only within State "A," and may not be
used within another State unless appropriate consent of State "A" is obtained; and
9. That business -type budgets must be submitted each year to the Congress. (Italics
in original.)
Congress has passed legislation since 1956 that authorizes additional uses of the
monies in the Basin Fund. In 1974, Congress passed the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control
Act (Salinity Control Act). Section 205(d) of this act amended Section 5(d) of the CRSP Act by
adding a new paragraph (5) at the end of Section 5(d). That new paragraph reads as follows:
(5) the costs of each salinity control unit or separable feature thereof, the costs of
measures to replace incidental fish and wildlife values foregone, and the costs of the on-
farm measures payable from the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund in accordance with
sections 205(a)(2), 205 (a) (3), and 205 (c) of the Colorado River Salinity Control Act.
Public Law 98 -569, amending the Salinity Control Act, added the language in italics to
subsection 5(d)(5). The effect of these amendments to the CRSP Act is to provide a source of
funding for part of the "program of works of improvement for the enhancement and protection of
the quality of water available in the Colorado River for use in the United States and the Republic
of Mexico, and to enable the United States to comply with its obligations under the agreement
with Mexico of August 30, 1973 (Minute No. 242 of the International Boundary and Water
Commission, United States and Mexico)" authorized by the Salinity Control Act. Adding the
obligation to repay a share of the costs of the salinity control units, measures to replace
incidental fish and wildlife values foregone and on -farm measures from the Basin Fund reduces
the amount of revenues available to finance participating projects. Currently about $1.7 million
annually is drawn from the Basin Fund for salinity control.
In 1992, Congress passed the "Grand Canyon Protection Act" (GCPA). Section 1807 of
the GCPA states: "The Secretary [of the Interior] is authorized to use funds received from the
sale of electric power and energy from the Colorado River Storage Project to prepare the
environmental impact statement described in section 1804, including supporting studies, and
the long -term monitoring programs and activities described in section 1805, except that such
funds will be treated as having been repaid and returned to the general fund of the Treasury as
costs assigned to power for repayment under section 5 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat.
170)" with exceptions as outlined in Section 1807. This provision has been described as
authorizing "payment of two bills with one check," since the monies will be treated as having
been repaid and returned to the general fund of the Treasury as costs assigned to power for
repayment under section 5 of the CRSP Act and will be used to prepare the Glen Canyon
Environmental Impact Statement and fund the long -term monitoring programs and activities
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