WSP05136

• File Number: 8200.400
• Description: Colorado River Basin Briefing Documents-History-Correspondence
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 10/1/1999
• Author: DOI-BOR
• Title: Programmatic Environmental Assessment-Rulemaking-Offstream Storage Colorado River Water - Development-Release Intentionally Created Unused Apportionment - Lower Division States - Appendix H-Section II
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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00047S

Comments of the
Colorado River Commission of Nevada and the Southern Nevada Water Authority

on the Department of the Interior's
December 31, 1997 Proposed Rule for Interstate OfT stream Storage
of Colorado River Water

April 3, 1998

L Executive Summary

The Colorado River Commission of Nevada ("Commission") and the Southern Nevada
Water Authority ("Authority") strongly support the current initiatives of the United States and
Arizona to make interstate off stream storage a reality in the Lower Division of the Colorado
River. Those initiatives can provide Southern Nevada, the fastest growing region in the nation,
with supplemental water supplies to meet needs in the next century. For the federal rule to
facilitate such an outcome for Southern Nevada, a few modifications of the provisions ofthe rule
should be made. These include

(1) making provision for the Secretary to commit contractually to release the unused
apportionment that will be intentionally created pursuant to an interstate storage
agreement;

(2) ensuring that purveyors such as the Authority and Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California (MWD) -- which previously have entered into interstate
storage agreements with the Secretary's approval- unquestionably qualifY as
"authorized entities" under the rule; and

(3) making the interstate storage agreement flexible enough to accommodate complex,
multi-year transactions.

The changes Nevada seeks are reflected in a draft version of the rule, attached as Appendix A and
compared with Reclamation's proposed rule published in the Federal Register on December 31,
1997 (Appendix B).

II. Detailed Comments

A. Introduction

We in Nevada commend the Interior Department for the positive step taken in the Bureau
of Reclamation's proposed interstate off stream storage rule. The Commission and the Authority
jointly have a keen interest in the Arizona water bank, and if a workable final rule is adopted by

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