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<br />003IJ5 <br /> <br />Page 4 <br /> <br />II. PHYSICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SETTING <br /> <br />A. Physical <br />The Colorado River Basin drains approximately 243,000 square miles <br /> <br />contained within the states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, <br /> <br />Arizona, California, and parts of the Mexican states of Baja, California and <br /> <br />Sonora. The river is highly regulated by a total reservoir storage capacity <br /> <br />approximately equal to four times the river's average annual flow. <br /> <br />The Colorado River Basin is divided both geographically and politically at <br />Lee Ferry, where the river crosses the Arizona-Utah border. The Upper Basin <br /> <br />includes lands in the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and is <br /> <br />the principal source of inflow into the Colorado River system. Three major <br /> <br />tributaries, the Green, the mainstem Colorado, and the San Juan Rivers, provide <br /> <br />most of this inflow. The Green River drains the western flanks of the Wind <br /> <br />River Range in Wyoming, flowing southward through northwestern Colorado and <br /> <br />eastern Utah, and is joined by the Yampa, White, Duchesne, Price and San Rafael <br /> <br />Rivers before meeting the Colorado mainstem within Canyonlands National Park. <br /> <br />Ii <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />The mainstem Colorado originates in the Kewaunichee Valley west of Rocky <br /> <br />Mountain National Park and flows westward, draining most of the major mountain <br /> <br />ranges in Colorado, and is joined by the Blue, Eagle, Roaring Fork, Gunnison, <br /> <br />and Dolores Rivers before it meets the Green. <br /> <br />The San Juan River flows south and then westward from the Colorado's San <br /> <br />Juan mountains, meeting the Colorado in southern Utah. <br />