Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. <br /> <br />interim criteria. Instead of modifying the Operating Criteria, the Secretary should adopt special <br />interim critma for releases of water from Lake Mead. The six states will prepare a more detailed <br />proposal that describes acceptable interim Lake Mead operating criteria. The following elements <br />should be ad<iressed in the adoption of the special interim criteria: <br /> <br />1. : No water user, including MWD and SDCW A, can be gUaranteed or assured of a <br />firm ~upply for any specified period. Any assurance or guarantee of supply to MWD and <br />SDCW A will create unreasonable risk to other states. Moreover, the Secretary of the <br />Interior does not have the authority to adopt any criteria that would assure any water user <br />of a full supply. Any risk created by the implementation of the interim criteria shall be <br />borne by the Lower Division State(s) which benefitted from the additional water made <br />available. <br /> <br />2. : The interim criteria will not take effect until firm cornrnitrnents are in place in <br />California to implement Phase I of the 4.4 Plan. including the execution of binding <br />contracts, agreed-on arrangements for transportation, and resolution of the quantification <br />and beneficial use issues. <br />, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />3. , Any interim criteria ",ill be effective only for a specified period of years, after <br />which the interim criteria will expire on their own terms. The states and Interior will <br />need to discuss the time-frame for the interim criteria suggested in the MWD/SDCW A <br />agreement. After expiration of the interim criteria, the existing Operating Criteria will <br />continue to control operations, unless the Secretary modifies the Operating Criteria <br />pursuant to his authority and under the process set out in the Criteria. <br /> <br />4. : Any interim criteria should include triggers that will implement different surplus <br />or shortage deliveries at specified target elevations of storage. Such triggers may need to <br />include an assessment of the water available to MWD and SDCW A from all sources of <br />supp!y. The criteria should also include bencmnarks. reponing mechanisms, and reviews, <br />by which California will demonstrate measurable and defined progress in rneeting the <br />goal~ of the 4.4 Plan. If sufficient progress is not. being made, the interim criteria should <br />auto#latically and by their own terms tenninate or suspend, and operations v.-ill revert <br />back to the existing Operating Criteria under a 70R strategy with no look-ahead. <br /> <br />5. 'Interim criteria should expire by 2015. Phase I of the Plan does not achieve a <br />reduction in use in California to 4.4 mafj'yr. California should identify how Phase II wi![ <br />be developed and implemented concurrently with Phase I, such that use in California in <br />no~l years will be reduced to 4.4 roafby2015. <br /> <br />6. ,Any amount declared by the Secretary as sUIplus above the 7.5 mati'yr basic <br />apportionment available to the Lower Division States must be apportioned 50% to <br />California, unless Arizona and Nevada choose not to divert and use the 46% and 4% of <br />the s\uplus amount that is available to those slates, respectively. Any interim criteria <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Page 3 of 4 <br />