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.'< i >',"1 ~:,~ >'. -~., -',;,,1"- ,,", against the proposed yardstick all-Federal transmission system, or a savings of $400,000,000 from the original transmission proposal of the private utilities. An additional $1,000,000 annual savings is expected ultimately to accrue to the Basin Fund from interconnection with the newly approved Colorado Ute REA genera- tion plant at Craig, Colorado, and other such plants in the Upper Basin. The operating principles and criteria establish a procedure whereby the reservoirs of the Colorado River Storage Project can be filled to an operating level as quickly as practicable with a minimum of disturbance to water deliveries under existing contractual arrangements. The Colorado River fluctuates widely, not only in its peak and minimum flows during the year but also in total annual runoff. The peak annual runoff of record was 22,000,000 acre-feet in 1907, and the minimum runoff was 4,396,000 acre-feet in 1934. The operating procedure was recommended to Secretary Udall by Assistant Secretary Kenneth Holum after lengthy studies by the Bureau of Reclamation, including over 265 reservoir operation studies made in cooperation with the Basin States representatives. , The Upper Colorado River Commission and other representatives of the Upper and Lower Basin States were consulted and informed constantly as the filling procedure was evolved, Commissioner of Reclamation Floyd E. Dominy said. The Upper Basin States are Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The Lower Basin States are Arizona, California, and Nevada. . The principal points of the criteria are summarized as follows: A. All uses of water, other than for power, below Glen Canyon would be satisfied while filling the Storage Project reservoirs. B. The United States would make an allowance recompensing either in power or money any necessary firm power reduction at Hoover Dam as determined by a formula. In essence, the formula computes the reduction as the difference between the amount of actual firm power generated and that which would have been generated without the Upper Basin reservoirs. The allowance, if made monetarily, would come from the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. Any dollars actually expended from this fund for this purpose would be returned, without interest, to the Upper Basin Fund after 1987 from Hoover Dam power revenues. C. Dead storage, which is necessary to bring the reservoir to the minimum operating level (6t million acre-feet), would be filled at the earliest practicable time, and, if storage and inflow permit, releases at Glen C~~yon would not be less than 1 million acre-feet per year, and 1,000 cubic feet per second. 2