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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />including water that is being delivered to Mexico in accordance with the 1944 Mexican Water <br />Treaty. <br /> <br />The forecast of the April through July runoff into Lake Powell this year is expected to be 16 <br />percent of average, only 1,25 million acre-feet. lIDs represents the lowest recorded runoff, <br />surpassing the previous lows of 1934 and 1977. <br /> <br />While Lakes Mead and Powell are capable of storing over 50 million acre-feet of water, <br />they are expected to be at about 61 percent of capacity, 31.0 million acre-feet, by the end of the <br />year. This is a decrease of over 7.3 million acre-feet this year. With normal precipitation in <br />2003, Lake Mead's water surface elevation is expected to continue to drop another 10 feet and <br />storage in Lake Mead would be reduced by about 1,1 million acre-feet. Lake Mead is the <br />reservoir in the Lower Colorado River Basin that provides the water for use by agricultural and <br />municipal water users in California, <br /> <br />The ability for California and the water agencies in California to draw more than 4,4 <br />rnillion acre-feet of water from the Colorado River in 2003 is dependent upon the water surface <br />elevation of Lake Mead and the California water agencies signing the Quantification Settlement <br />Agreement by December 31, 2002. With the expected water conditions on the Colorado River, if <br />the Quantification Settlement Agreement is not executed by the deadline, California's water use <br />in 2003 will be limited to 4.4 million acre-feet. lIDs would mean, because of the priority system <br />in California, that the expected water supply from the Colorado River for the metropolitan areas <br />of Los Angeles and San Diego would be cut in half. Such a reduction could result in severe <br />economic impacts on Southern California and the State as a whole. <br /> <br />000 <br /> <br />The Colorado River Board was created by the State Legislature to protect the interests and rights of the State of <br />California, its agencies, and citizens in the water and power resources of the Colorado River System and to confer <br />with entities within California, the federal government, the Colorado River Basin states, and others regarding <br />matters affecting the Colorado River and its use, <br />