BOARD01106

• Board Meeting Date: 2/3/1962
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

will accrue a debit of about
75,000 acre-feet under the Rio
Grande Compact this year. New
Mexico will accrue a credit of
about 20,000 acre-feet for the
year. Colorado has accrued an
annual debit in eleven of the
last twelve years, and by the
end of this year will have
accumulated a total debit of
about 645,000 acre feet. Hydro-
logic analyses indicate that the
pattern of underdeliveries by
Colorado results from increased
usage of the waters of the Rio
Grande in Colorado.

I

Underdeliveries by Colorado
are a source of growing concern to
water users in New Mexico.
Evidence of Colorado's active
interest in this problem would
serve to ease the concern.

I am advised that the Bureau
of Reclamation's preliminary
studies of the long contemplated
Closed Basin Drain project in
Colorado indicate tha t the con-
struction and operation of this
project would make it possible for
Colorado to meet her delivery
commitments and, over a period of
years, to retire her accumulated
debit. I am aware that some of
the water users in the San Luis
Valley in Colorado are opposed
to the project because of their
concern that it would adversely
affect their irrigation practices
and water levels in the ground- I
water reservoirs from which they
draw water. But I am advised that the
Bureau's studies show that the
project would not so affect these
wa ter users.

It is my understanding that
the preliminary draft of the