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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />\ <br /> <br />Colorado River Ooerations <br /> <br />Annual Operating Plan <br /> <br />On August 16th. the third meeting of the Colorado River Management Work Group was held <br />in Las Vegas, Nevada, to discuss the Year-2001 Annual Operating Plan for the Colorado River <br />System Reservoirs (2001 AOP). During the discussions regarding the 2001 AOP, the California <br />representatives have continued to maintain that considering existing reservoir and anticipated runoff <br />conditions a Surplus Declaration could be made by the Secretary of the Interior for the 2001 AOP. <br />The Upper Colorado River Commission and the State of Arizona have suggested that a decision <br />regarding the 200 I AOP should linked to the recommendations coming out of the soon forth coming <br />Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on Colorado River Interim Surplus Criteria. Such <br />action would delay Secretarial approval of the 2001 AOP until December 2000. The California <br />representatives have maintained that such a delay is unacceptable. We have indicated that the past <br />schedule for preparing the AOP must be followed this year in order allow each of the water <br />contractor's to submit their water delivery schedule and Part 417 water conservation plan to <br />Reclamation for its approval prior to January 1,2000. Without the AOP being in place, Reclamation <br />has no basis for evaluating the appropriateness of the water contractors requested water delivery <br />schedule. <br /> <br />During the August 16th meeting, Reclamation announced that the Colorado River <br />Management Work Group meet again on September 15th in Las Vegas, Nevada to continue to discuss <br />the 2001 AOP and that the final consultation meeting with the Basin states scheduled for <br />September 15th would be postponed. No date was announced for the final consultation meeting. <br /> <br />Decree Accounting Records <br /> <br />Article V of the 1964 U. S. Supreme Court Decree in Arizona v. California requires <br />Reclamation to keep detailed and accurate annual records of Lower Colorado River water releases, <br />diversions, and consumptive uses. On July 31 ". Reclamation released its compilation of records for <br />calendar year 1999 for the mainstream of the Colorado River downstream from Lees Ferry. The <br />record shows that the Lower Colorado River mainstream consumptive use was 7.98 maf, including <br />unmeasured return flow credits, in 1999. <br /> <br />The calendar-year 1999 Article V consumptive-use data was compiled by Reclamation using <br />the historic calculation methods of "Diversions minus Returns." The LCRAS calculation method <br />is still being seriously considered to be used to determine calendar-year 2000 Article V data. <br /> <br />Central Arizona Project <br /> <br />On May 3'd, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CA WCD) and the United <br />States agreed to a negotiated Settlement over the reimbursable costs for building the 336-mile long <br />Central Arizona Project (CAP). The Settlement among other things, fixed CA WCD's repayment <br />obligation at $1.65 billion and provided 665,224 acre-feet of CAP water for federal purposes to be <br />used for Indian water right settlement in Arizona. <br /> <br />2 <br />