BOARD00445

• Board Meeting Date: 5/19/2003
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Issues - California QSA
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Randy Seaholm, Chief, Water Supply Protection ~
May 13, 2003

Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director

FROM:

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

DATE:

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 25, May 19-20, 2003 Board Meeting-
Colorado River Issues - California Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA)

Introduction:

As lower basin water uses have approached 75 million acre feet (MAF), it has become necessary for
California to reduce its use of Colorado River water from 5.2 MAF to the 4-4 MAP allowed by the
Compact In order to accomplish this, California needed to quantifY its water users rights to
Colorado River water and to address the transfer of some agricultural water to municipal uses, The
Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) was one of several agreements required to accomplish
the task, Interim Surplus Guidelines and Inadvertent Overrun and Payback Criteria were also
developed and put in place to help provide a "soft landing." The Interim Surplus Guidelines
required that the QSA be fully executed by December 31,2002 or California and other Lower Basin
States would not receive any of the surplus water supplies made available pursuant to the Interim
Surplus Guidelines, Although California failed to reach agreement on the QSA by the December 31,
2002 deadline, they continued to work towards a QSA agreement On March 12, 2003 the State,
Imperial Irrigation District (lID), Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California (MWD) and San Diego County Water Authority (SDCW A) reached
tentative agreement on a revised QSA pending approvals by the agency Boards. Approval was
conditioned on reinstatement of the Interim Surplus Guidelines (ISG), resolution of inadvertent
overrun payback issues, settlement of the lID v. U.S. litigation, passage of implementing legislation
by the California legislature, and Department of Interior acceptance of certain agreements. The
substance of the QSA and certain agreements was presented to Interior and the other Colorado River
Basin States on March 13, 2003,

March 12, 2003 California OSA Summarv:

The attached summary was developed from the overhead handouts provided on March 13,2003.

General Overview

L 51 legal agreements have been fully fleshed out between California Department of Water

Resources, lID, CVWD, SDCW A and MWD.

Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning