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~) , 6 , . . 0394 CHAPTER 8 COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT The Inspector General found that the Bureau.of Reclamation had entered into a contract with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District that limited COWCD's repayment obligation to t156.8 million. The current construction cost estimates for the Bonneville Unit of the CRSP allocated to M&I water purposes have more than doubled since then. Instead of moving rapidly to negotiate a new repayment contract that would secure the needed repayment, the Bureau has subsequently taken two major actions intended to delay the need for a new contract. In 1981 the Bureau agreed to the deferment of a major portion of the M&I repayment obligation. In 1984, the Bureau proposed to reallocate costs from M&I to hydropower. Since January 1981, the Bureau has committed over ~220 millIon in additional funds for construction of the Bonneville Unit, and ~l04 million has been requested from Congress for FY 1985. BuRec still has not entered into a .new contract with COWCD to insure repayment of hundreds of millions of. dollars in costs now being incurred by the Federal government. BACKGROUND Description of the Project The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP), authorized in 1956 by Public Law 84-485, is a basin-wide program for development and use of the Upper Colorado River, encompassing parts of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Major purposes of CRSP include: storing water for consumptive use; making it possible for the states of the Upper Basin to utilize apportionments made to and among them in the Colorado River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact; providing irrigation water for the region's arid and semi-arid land; reducing flood damages; and generating hydroelectric power, as incident to the foregoing purposes. Once commitments to the Lower Colorado River Basin and to Mexico have been met, remaining water is stored to serve the needs of farmers, municipalities, and industry in the upper basin. Delivery of this water to beneficiaries is accomplished through other Bureau or Reclamation (BuRec) projects referred to as participating projects. CRSP currently includes four storage units, a transmission division, and 20 participating projects. Ten of the Dartici- pating projects were authorized by Public Law 84-485,-and the remaining ten participating projects were authorized by subsequent Acts or Congress. A listing of the storage units and participating projects is provided in Table 8-1. 79