BOARD00320

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2006
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Update on 7-State Proposal to Reclamation
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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spill from system reservoirs. However, if storage were required such stored water would
be subject to all provisions applicable to rcs created through extraordinary conservation,
Any agreements made with the Secretary to introduce and recover this water will survive
the termination of the Coordinated Operations of Lakes Powell and Mead,

Weather modification projects should be pursued as a means of augmenting Colorado
River System water supplies. However, increases in water supply that result from
weather modification projects are not included within the projects defined in this Section
and would not create any additional supply for a Contractor or State that engages in a
weather modification project.

Section 5.

Non-Colorado River System Water Exchanges

Contractors in Arizona, California, or Nevada may secure an additional water supply by funding
the development of a non-Colorado River System water supply in one Lower Division State for
use in another State by exchange. The new water supply developed would be consumptively
used in the State in which it was developed by a Contractor and that Contractor would
intentionally reduce its consumptive use of Colorado River water, This would allow the
Contractor(s) in the other Lower Division State(s) that provided the funding to consumptively
use the Colorado River water that was intentionally unused through an agreement with the
Secretary ofthe Interior. Through the cooperation ofthe International Boundary and Water
Commission, United States and Mexico, similar agreements could be established by which non-
Colorado River System water supplies in Mexico could be developed for use in the United States
by exchange.

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It could be necessary for a State or other lower priority Contractors in the State in which
consumptive use was intentionally reduced to agree to forebear their use of such water depending
on the then-existing priority system to use of Colorado River water, to avoid a claim against the
water being delivered to the Contractor that funded the new water supply. As an alternative to
forbearance, an offer by the Contractor developing the non-Colorado River System water to
allow the lower priority Contractor to pay the cost of developing a portion or all of the non-
Colorado River System water supplies to be developed, would be utilized to protect such a lower
priority Contractor's position in the then-existing priority system. A refusal of an offer to pay
the cost of developing a portion or all of the non-Colorado River System water supplies to be
developed would constitute the lower-priority Contractor's waiver of a right to challenge the
exchange.

Section 6. Accounting Mechanisms

The operating alternatives discussed in Sections 4 and 5 will require new or modified Colorado
River accounting mechanisms. No specific accounting mechanism to allow these types of
operations is proposed for evaluation in Reclamation's current NEP A process. However, the
description and evaluation of such accounting mechanisms would provide Contractors with the
assurance that if such accounting mechanism were adopted in the Record of Decision, funds
spent to propose such an arrangement in the future would not be spent in vain.

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