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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Agenda Item 6 <br />March 21-22 Board Meeting <br />Page3 of 5 <br /> <br />of curtailment of water uses in the Upper Basin during severe and prolonged drought <br />The 7-Basin States recognized that the water resources of the Colorado River Basin, <br />particularly in the Lower Basin, during drought conditions had been stretched to the limit <br />and that a more comprehensive approach was required. The States commented to the <br />Secretary that in addition to lower basin shortage criteria and better coordination of <br />Powell and Mead operations during low reservoir conditions that an extensive and <br />comprehensive effort was needed and suggested the inclusion of extensive water <br />conservation efforts and actions to augment the water supplies of the Colorado River <br />Basin. <br /> <br />Colorado's stated goals were to protect storage in Lake Powell, first and foremost to <br />assure that Powell operations protected the Upper Basin from the potential for water use <br />curtailments to the maximum extent possible, The next goal was to maintain the power <br />operations at Lake Powell, whose peaking power is vital to several million people and the <br />primary source of revenues used to repay CRSP participating projects and support <br />programs such as the Colorado River Salinity Control Program, the Endangered Species <br />Recovery Programs in the Upper Colorado and San Juan, and the Glen Canyon Adaptive <br />Management Program. <br /> <br />Proposed 7-State Recommendations - The "Proposal Regarding Colorado River <br />Interim Operations" addresses the full range of expected operations of both Lake Powell <br />and Lake Mead through 2025, It identifies water surface elevations in both Lake Powell <br />and Lake Mead where the water releases from Glen Canyon Dam would be modified to <br />either conserve storage in Lake Powell or to attempt to balance the storage in the two <br />reservoirs, The conservation releases from Glen Canyon Dam, ranging between 7.0 and <br />8.23 MAF, are to protect critical water surface elevations in Lake Powell and to help <br />avoid the potential for a Compact Call that would curtail uses in the Upper Basin. The <br />Upper Basin did not want Glen Canyon releases to go below 7.0 MAF annually, unless <br />such was unavoidable, because of concerns over meeting the 10-year running average <br />delivery obligation to the Lower Basin of75 MAF, <br /> <br />Balancing releases from Glen Canyon are to protect critical water surface elevations in <br />Lake Mead and to reduce shortages in the Lower Basin, In order to accomplish these <br />objectives, the annual releases from Glen Canyon Dam will vary from 7,0 mafto 9,5 maf <br />unless Lake Powell is nearly full and equalization determines Glen Canyon releases need <br />to be larger. The recommendation for balancing releases is dependent on the Lower <br />Basin (primarily Arizona) taking certain levels of shortage (400,000 or 500,000 or <br />600,000 AF depending on storage in Lake Mead as illustrated on the diagram) at the <br />same time balancing is occurring, Balancing may also occur when elevations in Lake <br />Mead reach critical levels that threaten deliveries to Southern Nevada from Lake Mead, <br /> <br />Arizona, when it received authorization for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), accepted <br />that CAP would take nearly all of any shortages in the Lower Basin. The manageable <br />level of shortages that Arizona was willing to accept, without further discussions, was <br />600,000 AF following the incremental steps shown on the coordinated operations <br />diagram attached hereto. Furthermore, the Lower Basin proposed modifications to the <br />