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2002 in Review The imponance of additional storage took front stage in Wyoming. Construction of the High Savory Dam rnoved closer to cornpletion and the Wyoming legislature approved feasibility study funding for the Church Reservoir site and Viva Naughton Reservoir expansion. The State of Colorado joined Wyorning to identify reservoir sites in the Little Snake River drainage. In Utah the Diamond Fork system of the Central Utah Project reached another milestone with the holing through of the Tanner Ridge Tunnel. When completed the tunnel will help transpon an average of 160,000 acre feet of water from Strawberry Reservoir in the Colorado River Basin to Utah Lake in the Great Basin. Conservation emerged as the top priority for Nevada. Recognizing the dire conditions, water resource managers developed a regional drought plan which was subsequently adopted by local water agencies. Adoption of this plan and increased conservation should minimize Nevada's need to draw on its groundwater reserves locally and in Arizona. On the infrastructure side, the River Mountains Water Treatment Facility became operational, increasing systern capacity, redundancy and flexibility. In California, effons to line the All American and Coachella canals continued. The design work to line eanhen portions of the Coachella Canal - 33.2 miles - was nearly complete, with a construction contract to be awarded as early as mid 2003. Construction is expected to take three years to complete. Lining the Coachella Canal will save approximately 31,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, most of which will remain at Lake Havasu for diversion to coastal California through Metropolitan Water District's Colorado River Aqueduct. In November, the Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Reclamation exe- cuted an Advance Funding Agreement. The goal of the November agreernent is to initiate preliminary work on the All American lining project. A newly formed three-rnember coor- dinating committee will address environrnental issues before 23 miles of the canal are lined. The lining project will eventu- ally save 67,700 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year. In April, urban water leaders in southern California and southern Nevada heralded the latest efforts to intercept per- chlorate-contaminated groundwater entering the Colorado River. Since October, the new remediation system installed under the direction of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has been intercepting groundwa- ter laden with perchlorate, an oxygen-rich salt known in high concentrations to affect they thyroid gland. Preliminary estimates indicate the system will remove a large percentage of perchlorate currently entering the Las Vegas Wash, a trib- utary that empties into Lake Mead. Additional key events: 2002 was the first year Interim Surplus Guidelines were used as part of the Annual Operating Plan process to determine water releases from Lake Mead. Secretary of Interior Gail Norton declared a "Full Domestic Surplus" condition for 2002, allowing both Nevada and California to take water above their basic entitlements. Arizona also had a right to surplus water but did not request any. All of the surplus water was for domestic use; no surplus water was made avail- able for agricultural contractors. In November, Secretary Norton supplemented the 2002 Annual Operating Plan, authorizing the Bureau of Reclamation to release additional water to the Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley Water District and Palo Verde Irrigation District. The districts requested water above the amounts approved in the 2002 AOP. The authorization was granted with the condition that a district repay any over- use if final accounting showed a district exceeded its origi- nally-approved amount. Final use numbers were not avail- able by the end of 2002. The 2003 AOP, signed by the Secretary in December 2002, contains two possible options for Water Year 2003 opera- tions. First, if California entities signed a Quantification Settlement Agreement by the end of December 2002, anoth- er "Full Domestic Use" water surplus would be declared in accordance with the Interim Surplus Guidelines. Second, if the QSA was not signed by the deadline, the more liberal portions of the Guidelines would be suspended, and a "nor- mal" determination would govern Lake Mead releases in 2003. The agreement was not signed by the deadline, so the Guidelines were suspended. With the resulting "normal" determination (4.4 MAF to California, 2.8 MAF to Arizona, and 0.3 MAF to Nevada), no surplus water will be available. This effectively reduces California's 2003 water order by approximately 620,000 acre-feet and Nevada's 2003 water order by approximately 37,000 acre-feet. Arizona's order was not reduced, as it requested only its basic annual entitlement of 2.8 MAE 4 Colorado River Water Users Associafion