BOARD01417

• Board Meeting Date: 5/24/1999
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Basin Issues - Upper Colorado River Commissioner's Report - Historic and Continuing Interest of the Upper Basin in Preserving Secure Interstate Allocations
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

The Current Interests ofthe Upper Basin - A Snmmary of Events Since 1991

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The Situation in 1991, the Start of the Interstate Discussions on California and Nevada issues
The historic interests of the Upper Basin states in security of supply began to be tested in about 1991.
At that time, a number of challenges to the legal and policy underpinnings of the Law of the River
necessitated the involvement of the Upper Basin states, and precipitated a direct and productive working
relationship among all the states and the federal government to solve these challenges in a manner that
avoids litigation. Among the issues the states faced in 1991 were the following:

I. The construction of the Central Arizona Project was nearing completion, water deliveries had
commenced, and demand for water from the Central Arizona Project was projected to increase total
consumptive water use from the mainstream Colorado River in Arizona to a level close to Arizona's
basic apportionment''' of 2.8 million acre feet (mat) per year.

2. Growth and development in Nevada caused the cessation of "commitments to serve" water to
new municipal growth in the Las Vegas area, and Nevada at that time expected to exceed its basic
apportionment of 0.3 maf per year by as soon as 2002.44

3. Consumption of Colorado River water in California had for several years exceeded
California's basic apportionment of 4.4 maf per year," However, this was not yet a problem, since total
beneficial consumptive uses of water from the mainstream Colorado River in the Lower Division States'.
had not exceeded the total amount of consumptive use allowable in "Normal"" years of 7.5 maf. Thus,
California users were able to use the apportioned but unused water of Arizona and Nevada.

4. The capacity of the Colorado River Aqueduct operated by the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California ("Metropolitan") for the delivery of municipal water to the California Coastal Plain
is about 1.3 mafper year." Of California's basic apportionment of 4.4 rnafper year, the first 3.85 maf is

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"The term "basic apportionment" refers to the amount of water that can be beneficially consumed by a
Lower Division State (defmed by Article II( d) of the 1922 Colorado River Compact as Arizona, California and
Nevada), pursuant to Article II(B)(I) of the Decree of the United States Supreme Court in Arizona v. California,
373 U.S. 340 (1964), and under a "Normal" determination by the Secretary of Interior pursuant to Article III(3) of
the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs Pursuant to the Colorado River
Basin Project Act September 30, 1968 (P.L. 90-537).

"Speech by Gerald A. Lopez, Deputy Attorney General for Nevada, September 10, 1991, before the
American Society for Public Administration, Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Total water use of Colorado River water in California increased from 4.839 mafin 1981 to 5.22 mafin
1990. Source: Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region.

'"The "Lower Division States" are defmed in the 1922 Colorado River Compact as the States of Arizona,
California, and Nevada. Article II( d).

"Under the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs, the Secretary
determines each year in the Annual Operating Plan whether "surplus," "normal" or "shortage" conditions exist with
respect to the release of water from Lake Mead for use in the Lower Division States.

48The Regional Urban Water Management Plan for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
November, 1990, page 58.

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