BOARD02180

• Board Meeting Date: 1/22/2003
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Issues
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Agenda Item 13
January 22-23, 2003 Board Meeting
Page 2 of5

15-years, Inadvertent Overrun Accounting, the annual operating plans, and lower basin water orders.
As lower basin uses have increased, it has become; necessary for California to reduce its use of
Colorado River water from 5.2 MAF to the 4.4 MAF allowed by the Cornpact. 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 mmricipal uses. The QSA was the vehicle needed .
and in order to accomplish such with minimal disruption, a "soft landing" as provided through the
Interim Surplus Guidelines was desired. In order to assure that inadvertent overruns were paid back,
inadvertent overrun criteria were developed and put in place. The annual operating plans were to be
the means for irnp1ementing the Interim Surplus Guidelines and assuring compliance. Because
environmental interests did not get all the concessions they would have liked in the Interim Surplus
Guidelines, the 5-year review of the Coordinated LOr(g-Range Operating Criteria has become one of
their prime targets.

The last group of Colorado River issues we would like to discuss relates to the Glen Canyon
Adaptive Management Program, the test flows that the Program has recommended and the recent
notice of intent to sue the Secretary of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Earth
Justice over the Recovery Goals. Since embarking on the Glen Canyon Adaptive Management
Program, the dam operations recommended by the Adaptive Management Program and supported in
large part by the environmental representatives on the program have not had the desired result. We
have been working hard to rnake sure the recovery goals guide our actions related to endangered fish
species. Because these goals are less than many of the environmental interests would like, their
recourse is to sue rather than accept the goals adopted.

The following is a brief overview of each subject area.

Colorado River Salinity Levels and Citizens Com~ttee: Salinity levels in the river remain well
below the established standards at Hoover (723 mg\li), Parker (747 mg\L) and Imperial (879 mg\L).
However, the reductions in salinity are making it increasingly difficult to meet the differential (115
+/- 30 mgll) at the Northern International BoundarY with Mexico required by Minute 242 of the
1944 Treaty, as indicated in the attached graph from the Decernber 2002 report on salinity operations
on the Colorado River under Minute 242 prepm:ed. qy mwc. mwc has also created a "Colorado
River Citizens Forum" (CRCF) to exchange infonnation regarding mwc activities in Yuma
County, Arizona and Imperial County, California. CRCF will consist of 10 members representing
diverse interests in the community with quarterly meetings open to the public.

.

.

.

Colorado River Delta Workgroup: The Yuma Desalt Plant (YDP), which has not operated since
1992, was constructed to treat agricultural drainagl1' water from the Wellton-Mohawk and Yuma
areas. The treated water is returned to the river to satisfy part of the delivery obligations to Mexico
and to ensure that the Colorado River water delivered to Mexico meets the Minute 242 salinity
differential. The YDP has not operated because of the expense and because there has been
replacement water available from the lining of a section of the Coachella Canal. As a result, 108,000
acre-feet of drainage water has not been returned to the Colorado River, but bypassed instead to the
Santa Clara Slough. Consequently, a significant pdrtion of the Colorado River Delta wetland has .
. been rejuvenated. This rejuvenation has resulted ir( a number of environmental organizations and
the government of Mexico wanting to re-establish thl1' entire Colorado River Delta wetland area. The
initial step in this effort was the adoption of Minute 306 to the 1944 Treaty with Mexico in
Flood Protection. Water Project Planning and .Financing . Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protectio1.1 . Consel'Vation Planning