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<br />002:i27 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Application for Change in Place of Use for Miscellaneous Present Perfected Right (P P R) <br /> <br />Included in the Board folder is a letter from Mr. Sonny E. Gowan, ofECS Company-Water <br />Systems Management, concerning the lease transfer of a portion of Present Perfected Right (PPR) <br />water. The present right is attached to a 120-acre site in Imperial County about two miles south of <br />Oxbow Lake between State Highway 78 and the Colorado River. The PPR in question is No. 32 <br />(Grannis, 1928) as defined in the "1964,1979, and 1984 U.S. Supreme Court Decrees in Arizona <br />v. California" and consists ofan entitlement to divert annually 180 acre-feet of Colorado River water <br />to irrigate 30 acres on the existing property. Mr. Gowan proposes to lease water to San Bernardino <br />County for use in Moabi Park, located just north of Interstate 40, approximately ten miles south of <br />the City of Needles in San Bernardino County. The Park is owned and operated by the County of <br />San Bernardino, Department of Community and Cultural Resources, and the long-time established <br />Park has no contract with the federal government to divert Colorado River water. <br /> <br />Reclamation has a long standing contract (Contract No. 7-07-30-WOI58) with the owners <br />of PPR No. 32, but the existing contract does not provide for a change in place of water use, and <br />thus, does not allow Mr. Gowan to lease water to San Bernardino County for use in Moabi Park. <br />There are PPR contracts that do have provisions for "change in place of water use", hence, <br />Mr. Gowan's request is not unprecedented. Examples where change in place of water use are <br />occurring are PPR No. 29 (Wavers, 1856, 780 acre-feet/year) to the City of Winterhaven; PPR <br />No. 31 (Mendivil, 1893, 120 acre-feet/year) to the California Department of Parks and Recreation <br />and others; and PPR No. 38 (Andrade, 1921, 66 acre-feet/year) to twelve separate entities. In all <br />changes of use assignments, Reclamation desires that the return flows remain the same before and <br />after the assignment. Reclamation has asked Mr. Gowan to obtain the Board's recommendation for <br />the change in place of water use before he proceeds to finalize his lease with the County of San <br />Bernardino. <br /> <br />There are several additional factors which the Board should be aware of before making a <br />recommendation regarding Mr. Gowan's request: I) Reclamation has already approved the <br />assignment of the PPR to Mr. Gowan from the previous water right holder, and 2) Moabi Park will <br />be eligible for water from the Lower Colorado Water Supply Project when that project comes on <br />line. However. San Bernardino County prefers to have a PPR water right versus using Project water. <br /> <br />Pending Water Service Contracts <br /> <br />Included in the Board folder is a copy of the "Quarterly Status Tabulation of Pending Water <br />Service, Repayment, and Miscellaneous Contract Actions" which are scheduled to be published in <br />the Federal Register. The Board staff will closely follow items 34, 55 and 61. Item 55 is a <br />completed action assigning the miscellaneous PPR to a new owner, Mr. Sonny Gowan. Mr. Gowan <br />is requesting that the Board approve his application for change in place of use and point of diversion <br />for a portion of his PPR water right. as described above. <br /> <br />California's Colorado River Water Use Plan <br /> <br />Activities related to completion of California's Colorado River Water Use Plan are <br /> <br />3 <br />