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

described in the GCPA. The practical effect of this provision is that once the power revenues
are used to fund GCPA costs, the Upper Division States would have to seek congressional
appropriations to fund future participating project development. Currently about $10 million
annually is drawn from the Basin Fund to fund Glen Canyon Adaptive Management.
In 2000, Congress passed Public Law 106 -392, an Act "to authorize and provide funding
for the Bureau of Reclamation [Reclamation] to continue the implementation of the endangered
fish recovery implementation programs for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins in
order to accomplish the objectives of these programs within a currently established time
schedule." Subsection 3(c) of this Act provides for non - federal contributions to capital projects
undertaken for the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the
Upper Colorado River Basin (Upper Basin Program) and the San Juan River Basin Recovery
Implementation Program (San Juan Program). Paragraph (2) authorizes the Secretary of
Energy, acting through the Western Area Power Administration (Western), and the Secretary of
the Interior, acting through Reclamation, to utilize power revenues collected pursuant to the
CRSP Act to provide funding for capital projects. These funds "shall be treated as reimbursable
costs assigned to power for repayment under section 5 of the Colorado River Storage Project
Act" and "shall not exceed $17,000,000." These funds are to be treated as a non - federal
contribution for the purposes of P.L. 106 -392. This funding may also be provided through loans
from the Colorado Water Conservation Board Construction Fund and then repaid from power
revenues collected beginning in fiscal year 2012. Loan repayments, including principal and
interest, are to be completed no later than September 30, 2057.
Beginning the first fiscal year after the date of enactment of P.L. 106 -392, Paragraph
3(d)(1) states the Secretary of the Interior may also use power revenues collected pursuant to
the CRSP Act for the annual base funding contributions to the two recovery programs by
Reclamation. "Such funding shall be treated as nonreimbursable and 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 Colorado River Storage Project Act." Paragraph (d) (2) provides that the
contributions to base funding for the Upper Basin Program "shall not exceed $4,000,000 per
year," and the contributions for the San Juan Program "shall not exceed $2,000,000 per year."
The Secretary of the Interior is also authorized to adjust these amounts for inflation in years
after the enactment of the Act. No later than the end of fiscal year 2008, the Secretary of the
Interior is required to submit a report to Congress on the utilization of power revenues for base
funding and make a recommendation in the report regarding the need for continued base
funding after fiscal year 2011 that may be required to fulfill the goals of the recovery programs.
Paragraph (d)(3) requires that Western and Reclamation maintain sufficient revenues in
the Basin Fund to meet their obligation to provide base funding in accordance with paragraph
(d)(2). If Western and Reclamation determine that funds in the Basin Fund are insufficient to
meet the obligations of section 5(c)(1) of the CRSP Act (i.e. "[d]efraying the costs of operation,
maintenance, and replacements of, and emergency expenditures for, all facilities of the
Colorado River storage project and participating projects, within such separate limitations as
may be included in annual appropriation acts: Provided, That with respect to each participating
project, such costs shall be paid from revenues received from each such project "), the Federal
agencies must request appropriations to meet base funding obligations. Recovery program
participants are currently seeking additional funding for the recovery programs, since recovery
of the fish species is not yet complete.
Again, the provision authorizing the use of power revenues for recovery programs base