Development of New Water Resources For Southern Nevada :Agua Nueva" April 1993

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The "Law of the River" is the most potent obstacle to this proposed project. To overcome it will require a sustained effort to know and understand the balance of power in the states, the U.S. Govt. and the Mexican Govt. Another issue is the loss of power generation from Hoover Dam and other power generation facilities downstream, by additional diversions from lake Mead. Arrangements (and /or payment) for replacement power will have to be made for lost power generation. There is already precedence for this type of arrangement in the Lower Colorado River Basin with * diversions of some of Mexico's allocation by MWDSC through the San Diego County aqueduct to Tijuana, Mexico. Regarding lost power generation, another issue to be taken into account is the fact that a large portion of the water delivered to Mexico is diverted at Imperial Dam into the All- American Canal and released through the Pilot Knob Power Plant back to the river just above Morelos Dam. If additional diversion at Lake Mead cuts into the flow going through Pilot Knob the resulting lost power generation will have to be replaced also. Again, in this case, there should be no problem in the early years of the water exchange project -- as long as the upstream diversion does not exceed the minimum flow requirement in the river through Yuma. A more serious issue may be the deterioration in water quality downstream of Hoover Dam due to additional diversions from Lake Mead. This may affect all downstream users. The salinity of the river could change somewhat due to the consumptive part of the diversion which makes less water available for dilution of salty return flows downstream. The return flow portion of the additional diversion adds to the salt level of the river because the TDS of the water increases about 100 to 200 ppm on its pass through a municipal water and sewer system. 1 A9 Carollo Black & Veatch