University of Colorado Law Review Volume 55 Issue 3 Spring 1984

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406 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 55 fully stored. The state even acquired the right to use a portion of the water stored behind the Rio Grande Reservoir that has been rehabil- itated in the San Luis Valley." This small program was further re- duced when a portion of the Construction Fund was used to meet a potential shortfall of revenue in 1983, but should be restored when revenues are available.96 2. Cost-sharing. Colorado responded to the Reagan Administration's cost-shar- ing proposals by transferring $30 million from the Construction Fund to the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Au- thority for the purpose of sharing costs on the Narrows and Animas La Plata projects of the Bureau of Reclamation." Colorado has con- tended that cost sharing arrangements must be negotiated separately for each project, subject only to very general criteria. The contract resulting from the negotiations will probably have to receive Con- gressional approval. A recent letter to Nevada's Senator Paul Laxalt from President Reagan seems to accept this principle,97 but negotia- tions have been sporadic and have ebbed and flowed, depending on the status of appropriations pending in Congress. 3. Colorado River Basin power revenue negotiations Colorado, through its Water Conservation Board, has under- taken an extensive series of negotiations with other Colorado River Basin states in an effort to seek their approval for adjustments and increases in rates charged for Colorado River Basin Project power. The increased revenues would then be paid to Upper Basin states for use in building water projects.98 The funds returned to the states under Colorado's proposal could be used for financing storage projects that may be less grand than those planned by the federal government, but presumably, in the long run, just as useful. The Colorado initiative is not a new idea. Lower Basin power revenues must be renegotiated by 1987, when the original power contracts run out. Arizona wants power revenues from the Lower Basin to finance portions of the Central Arizona Project." 94. 1982 Colo. Sess. Laws 539. 95. Coro. REV. STAT. § 37-60-121(5) (1973). 96. 1982 Colo. Sess. Laws 541, 702-03. 97. Letter from President Reagan to Senator Paul Laxalt (January 24, 1984). 98. If negotiations were successful,appropriate changes would be required to the Colo- rado River Storage Project Act,43 U.S.C. § 620(d) (1980). 99. See S. 268 and H.R. 4275, 98th Congress (1983-84).