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Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court has addressed itself to the provisions S;) of the Boulder Canyon Project Act in the case of Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546 (1963). r-, 00 00 ~.... The provisions of these acts, and the pertinent judicial interpre- tations thereof, give rise to numerous unresolved questions which may ulti- mately affect the allocation of water from the Colorado River System. However, for the purposes of this assessment, the only statutory provisions which need special mention are certain sections of the Colorado River Basin Project Act. The subject act is the source of congressional direction as to the operation of the major Colorado River Basin storage reservoirs.l Section. 602(a) of ' the act specifies that the Secretary of the Interior shall propose criteria for the coordinated long-range operation of the reservoirs, which criteria shall make provision for the storage and release of water pursuant to a specified set of priorities. Section 601 specifies. that nothing in the act is to be construed as altering, modifying, or amending the Mexican treaty, interstate compacts, and U.S. Supreme Court decree noted above. As required, criteria have been promulgated2 and nOW form the basis for the. operation of the subj~ct re-ervoirs. While addressed to many situations and conditions, the most ioportant aspect of the criteria insofar as this assessment is concerned is the plan of operation for Lake Powell. In this regard, the criteria require the Secretary of the Interior, . on January 1, of each year, to report on the projected plan of ,?peration for that current'water year (from the preceding October I to the following September 30). Article II of the criteria states that: ..~~.~. ';;:,r;~; (I) The annual plan of operation shall include a determination by the Secretary of the quantity of water con- sidered necessary as of September 30 of that year to be in storage as required by section 602(a) of . . . the Colorado River Basin Project Act (hereinafter "602(a) Storage"). The quantity of 602(a) Storage shall be determined by the Secretary after consideration of all applicable laws and. relevant factors. . . . (2) If, in the plan of operation, either: I. Hoover Dam, which forms Lake Mead in the Lower Basin, was authorized by the Boulder Canyon Project Act. Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir, the Curecanti Unit (Crystal, Morrow Point, and Blue Mesa re-ervoirs), and Glen Canyon Dam, which forms Lake Powell, were authorized by the Colorado River Storage Project Act. These latter five reservoirs, are all located in the Upper Basin (see fig 2.2). 2. Criteria for Coordinated, Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reser- voirs, 35 Fed. Reg., 8951-S2, (1970). xxxiv