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<br />e <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Colorado and other Upper Basin states are in the continued <br />grip of an on-going, historic drought, during which Colorado communities <br />have imposed extreme water use restrictions and undertaken extraordinary <br />water conservation efforts; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Colorado's agricultural community, which represents 80% <br />of the water ownership in the State, continues to struggle with the effects <br />of this on-going drought with significant impacts of upwards of$l.5 billion <br />to Colorado's economy; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, On March 16,2005, the Upper Basin's main water savings <br />account, Lake Powell, had 8.1 million acre-feet of live storage (33% of <br />capacity), while the Lower Basin's primary operating reservoir, Lake Mead, <br />reported 15.8 million acre-feet of live storage (62% of capacity); and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Conditions in the Lower Basin states of Arizona, <br />California, and Nevada have improved significantly with record and near <br />record precipitation, with tributary inflow to the Colorado River mainstem <br />in the Lower Basin between October 1, 2004, and February 28, 2005, <br />totaling more than 1.5 million acre-feet, leaving most Lower Basin <br />reservoirs full or nearly full; and <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />WHEREAS, There is a great discrepancy between precipitation in the <br />Lower Basin, which is far wetter than normal this water year, and <br />precipitation in the Upper Basin, which is below average in many basins <br />this water year; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, The United States Secretary of the Interior, through the <br />Bureau of Reclamation, is charged with the obligation to determine the <br />amount of the minimum objective release annually from the Upper Basin <br /> <br />PAGE 2-HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 05-1042 <br /> <br />e <br />