Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Opening Statement <br />Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell <br />Oversight Hearing <br />on Water Q~~lity and Quantity <br />Problems and Opportunities <br />Facing the Lower Colorado River Basin <br />June 8, 1994 <br /> <br />Mr. Chairman and member3 of the Committee. I would like to open <br />today by making some comments regarding the Lower Colorado River <br />Basin from the critically important perspective of the Upper <br />Basin. My comments today have been reviewed, and are fully <br />supported by, the State of Colorado. <br /> <br />While these hearings ostensibly are designed to examine questions <br />in the Lower Colorado River, many of these questions have direct <br />ramifications for the Upper Basin. The Committee's active inquiry <br />into Lower Basin issues would be seriousLy misguided and fatally <br />flawed if it does not also reflect an understanding and full <br />appreciation of the important links between operations in the <br />Lower Basin and upper Basin intere3ts. <br /> <br />All of the issues today's witnesses have been asked to address <br />impact the Upper Basin, including the jesignation of critical <br />habitat for endangered species, the release of Lower Colorado <br />River regulations by the Bureau of Rec:amation, the settlement of <br />Indian water rights disputes, and especially "whether fundamental <br />change may be necessary in the laws and procedures that control <br />the Colorado". <br /> <br />The Colorado River is one of the most heavily regulated and used <br />water resources in the world. The combination of Interstate <br />Compacts, treaties. decrees, State and federal statutes, <br />adm~nistrative decisions, and regulations that control the <br />. allocation and use of the Colorado are generically referred to as <br />the "Law of the River". On its face. :he Law of the River <br />commits a minimum of 17.5 million acre feet to consumptive use or <br />export (7.5 maf to each Basin. an addi:ional 1 maf to the Lower <br />Basin, and 1.5 maf to Mexico). This allocation of 17.5 million <br />acre feet is several million acre feet over the average flows of <br />the River, especially in recent years. Given the wide <br />fluctuations in virgin flows, the developed yield of the River is <br />critical and each State, while generally supportive of other <br />States developing their apportionment. is fairly suspicious of <br />activities in other States. <br /> <br />The rapid development of Colorado Rive~ water in California <br />around the turn of the century generated increasing concern among <br />the other Basin States, especially in :he Upper Basin, that <br />California would claim the entire Rive~ before the other States <br />were prepared to take what they each consider?d their fair share. <br />That concern resulted in the negotiation of an Interstate <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />OOO~Ol <br />