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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />002728 <br /> <br />The Secretary of the Interior has been assigned the <br />responsibility for operating the river's reservoirs and is, <br />in effect, the river's watermaster. The Law of the River <br />provides the basis by which the Secretary performs his/her <br />duties. The Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of <br />the Colorado River Reservoirs (Operating Criteria), <br />promulgated pursuant to the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project <br />Act, P.L. 90-537, directs the Secretary, in consultation with <br />the Basin states, to develop an annual operating plan for the <br />reservoir system which reflects "appropriate consideration of <br />the uses of the reservoirs for all purposes, including flood <br />control, river regulation, beneficial consumptive uses, power <br />production, water quality control, recreation, enhancement of <br />fish and wildlife, and other environmental factors". The <br />projected annual operating plan for the water year is <br />transmitted at the beginning of the year to the Congress and <br />the Governors of the seven Basin states. The Secretary of the <br />Interior has delegated the actual formulation of the annual <br />operating plan and the day-to-day responsibilities for <br />operating the river's reservoir system to the Bureau of <br />Reclamation. <br /> <br />Present river operations for flood control are governed <br />by the Corps of Engineers' Hoover Dam Flood Control <br />Regulations. The flood control regulations provide for <br />stepped-minimum releases from Hoover Dam of 0 cubic feet per <br />second (cfs), 19,000 cfs, 28,000 cfs, 35,000 cfs, 40,000 cfs, <br />and 73,000 cfs for snowmelt floods. The operation for rain <br />floods is described on page VII-3 of the "Water Control <br />Manual for Flood Control, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead Colorado <br />River" dated December 1982. The lowest step, 0 cfs, <br />corresponds to times when the regulations do not require <br />flood control releases. The maximum Hoover Dam nondamaging <br />flood control release objective established when the Dam was <br />constructed is 40,000 cfs. Encroachments into portions of <br />the flood plain resulted in substantial property damage with <br />a 40,000 cfs release from Hoover Dam in 1983. Encroachments <br />had occurred to the extent that property damages were <br />sustained in various river reaches when the flood control <br />releases reached 20,000 cfs. Under full or near full <br />reservoir conditions, flood control releases are likely to <br />occur again. <br /> <br />The establishment and maintenance of a Floodway, as <br />provided by the Colorado River Floodway Protection Act, will <br />serve to preserve the vital conservation storage of the <br />reservoir system, minimize damage to property and natural <br />resources, protect public health and safety, and reduce the <br />threat of loss of human life. To provide for the <br />encroachment that had occurred in the Floodway would be <br /> <br />II-2 <br />