BOARD01112

• Board Meeting Date: 1/24/2006
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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The AOP states that releases from Lake Powell to the lower Colorado River basin in water year 2006 will
be made to meet the minimum objective release of 8,23 million acre-feet. This is consistent with the
requirements of the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs.

In the Lower Basin, consistent with the Interim Surplus Guidelines, the "partial domestic surplus"
criterion will govern releases from Lake Mead in 2006. Under this criterion, surplus water would be
available only to municipal water contractors in Arizona, California and Nevada. The total amount of
surplus water that would be available is projected to be approximately 300,000 acre-feet; however, none
of the water users has indicated they plan to take any of this surplus water.

The Secretary may do a mid-year review of the 2006 AOP to determine if hydrologic conditions warrant
an adjustment to the minimum objective 8,23 MAF release amount from Lake Powell, Any revision to the
AOP would consider the purposes and benefits of Lake Powell and Lake Mead and would occur through
the consultation process as required by applicable Federal law. The final AOP is available at
<htto://www,usbr,gov/Ic/recion/g4000/AOP2006/AOP06 fina1.odf>

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Imperial Irrigation District Board Selects New General Manager: On October 24 the Imperial
Irrigation District Board of Directors selected Mr. Charles Hosken as its new General Manager. Mr,
Hosken comes from eastern Washington, and has extensive experience working with state, federal, and
tribal interests.

National Research Council Preparing Report on Water Management: The Water, Science and
Technology Bard, a unit of the National Research Council is currently engaged in preparing a report
assessing the scientific bases of Colorado River Basin management. A committee is looking at scientific
data and hydrologic studies, paleo-hydrology data, and current and projected climatic data, all of which
will be utilized to produce a hydrologic baseline that can be used to support water management decision- .
making and water project operations,

Imperial Irrigation District Resolution Regarding Water Conservation and Forebearance
Commitments: The lID Board of directors passed a resolution on November 2 that committed the lID to
water conservation efforts and programs and rejected any future efforts to conserve water through
fallowing or forebearance agreements. The resolution reaffirms the Board's commitment to the
Quantification Settlement Agreement of October 2003.

California Takes Position Regarding Development of Lower Basin Tributary Water Supplies: The
Basin States have been discussing Nevada's development of the Virgin River, To advance those
discussions, California distributed a paper that outlines California's position regarding tributary water
supply development. This paper indicates that any such development must recognize California's senior
water rights priority in the event of shortages or deficiencies in mainstream water supplies, As tributary
water supply development moves forward, California takes the position that efforts should be made to
reasonably protect California's senior water rights entitlements, to the extent that those entitlements are
dependent on the historic contributions to the mainstream supply by those tributaries,

Arizona Distributes Draft White Paper on 602(a) Storage Issues: The Arizona Department of Water
Resources distributed a draft white paper associated with Arizona's analysis and policy implications
associated with the Colorado River Basin Project Act Section 602(a) storage algorithm, Arizona
maintains that Section 602 of the CRBOA and the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of
Colorado River System Reservoirs requires the Secretary of the Interior to make an annual determination
of the quantity of water considered necessary to be in storage in the Upper Basin reservoirs to provide
drought protection to the Upper Division states. Arizona also maintains that Section 602 does not permit .
the storage of water to protect power generation, and maintains that the minimum power pool storage
factor must be removed for the algorithm, Arizona also maintains that the Upper Basin's Depletion

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