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<br />Colorado River storage project preclude or impair the <br />appropriation of water for domestic or agricultural purposes <br />pursuant. to applicable State law." It is the existence of this <br />section in the legislation which has focused the issue as to <br />whether or not, in determining water availability, the Applicant <br />can ignore the power decrees awarded to the Aspinall Unit. This <br />issue will be discussed in depth later in thi~ Decree. <br /> <br />31. Section 620g: Section 8 of CRSPA, 43 U.S.C. 620g, <br />authorizes and directs the Secretary of the Interior to operate and <br />maintain facilities to mitigate losses of and improve conditions <br />for the propagation of fish and wildlife. Section 8 also authoriz- <br />es and directs the Secretary to operate and maintain public <br />recreational facilities, and to provide for public use of water <br />areas created by authorized projects, by such means as are <br />consistent with the primary purposes of said projects. <br /> <br />2. The River District's Application for Water Rights <br />for the Aspinall Unit on behalf of the United States <br /> <br />32. On October 15, 1957, the Colorado River Water Conservation <br />District (herein: " CRWCD " or the "River District") adopted a <br />resolution (Exhibit 2200) to file maps and statements with the. <br />State Engineer and statements of claim "for all water to be <br />impounded and utilized by or in connection with [the Aspinall <br />Unit]." <br /> <br />33. The resolution indicated, inter alia, the following: <br /> <br />a. that the River District intended to secure "firmly <br />established and decreed rights to the use of water for all <br />beneficial purposes to which the water may be put in connec- <br />tion with [the Aspinall Unit]" <br /> <br />b. that the River District did not intend to interfere in <br />any way with the basin_ide primary functions of the reservoir <br />which the resolution characterizes as "to provide holdover <br />storage capacity to enable the Upper Basin States to comply <br />with the requirements of the Colorado River Compact not to <br />cause the flow of the Colorado River at Lee Ferry to be <br />depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre feet for any <br />period of ten consecutive years and to generate electric <br />energy, but on the contrary, can be coordinated completely <br />with such primary uses, and thus enhance the feasibility of <br />said project." <br /> <br />c. that any decrees obtained by the River District would be <br />held,by it, as trustee, for the following purposes: <br /> <br />"1. As to such decrees for holdover storage and power <br />production, for the primary use and benefit of the States <br />of Utah,. Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado, to serve the <br />purposes and perform the functions assigned to said <br />Curecanti Project by public Law 485." <br /> <br />21 <br />