WSP04887

• File Number: 8210.140.20.A
• Description: Colorado River - Colo River Basin - Orgs/Entities - CRBSF - California - Colo River Board of Calif
• State: CA
• Date: 3/9/2004
• Author: Gerald Zimmerman
• Title: Executive Directors Monthly Report to the Colorado River Board of California
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Reclamation committed to keeping the Basin States and stakeholders informed of
the progress of the Team. Reclamation estimates that it may take between two and three
years to fully address the issue and develop consensus-based solutions. Mr. Dale
Ensminger has been appointed as the Team Leader and is the Point-of-Contact associated
with this issue.

Central Arizona Project Allocation of Water Supply & Long-Term Contract Extension
Draft EIS

Reclamation's Phoenix Area Office (PAO) recently announced that it was
reopening the public review perioG associated with the draft Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) on the Allocation of Water Supply and Long-Term Contract Extension
for the Central Arizona Project. The draft EIS was released for review and comment on
June 23, 2000; however, due to federal legislation passed by Congress in July 2000,
Reclamation suspended all work on finalizing the EIS, Comments on the current draft
EIS are due in Reclamation's PAO by April 27, 2004.

The proposed action being considered in the draft EIS is the proposed reallocation
of 65,647 acre-feet of CAP water; an additional 36,700 acre-feet would be allocated to
the Gila River Indian Community, and 1,218 acre-feet for Indian water rights settlements
in the Salt-Verde River watersheds. Additionally, of the 293,795 acre-feet of non-Indian
agricultural water that is expected to be relinquished over time, 67,300 acre-feet would be
reserved for future Indian water rights settlements, and the remaining 96,295 acre-feet
would be held by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) for future M&I
uses or other future non-Indian agricultural water uses. Finally, the government, in the
July 2003 legislation, is forgiving $73,561,337 in CAP debt. A copy of the press release
announcing the reopening of the comment period and brief description of the proposed
project is included in the Board folder.

California's Colorado River Water Use Plan

Update of/he Colorado River Water Use Plan.

Mr. Jay Malinowski, through the existing contract with McGuire & Associates.
continues to make progress on updating California's Colorado River Water Use Plan
(CRWUP), It is anticipated that the next iteration of the CRWUP will be released, in
draft form. to the Agencies for an administrative review in late-March or early-April
2004.

Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Project EIR Notice of Preparation

On February 27, 2004, the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR)
released the CEQA Notice of Preparation (NaP) associated with the draft Salton Sea
Ecosystem Restoration Project Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR), As
YOll will recall, the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) implementing legislation
requires that CDWR and the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) prepare a

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