WSP06657

• File Number: 8210.120.90.B
• Description: 7 Basin States/10 Tribes
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 8/28/1991
• Author: State of California
• Title: Conceptual Approach for Reaching Basin States Agreement on Interim Operation of Colorado River System Reservoirs, California's Use of Colorado Riber Water Above its Basic Apportionment and Implementa
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

water agencies to allow a significant portion of Metropolitan's
requests for water from the Colorado River to be met from within
California's basic apportionment of 4.4 maf. Achievement of this
objective may require modification of the existing annual operation
of the Colorado River System reservoirs. Therefore, agreement on
how the Colorado River System reservoirs will be operated during an
interim period, that could extend through the year 2010, must be
reached among the seven Basin states and the Secretary of the
Interior. The framework for that agreement, which includes the
tenets for agreement and the conceptual approach, follows:

III. TENETS FOR AGREEMENT

In order for agreement to be reached on an interim plan of
annual operation for the Colorado River System reservoirs,
agreement must be obtained on the tenets for agreement as well as
the conceptual approach. The tenets for agreement include:

A. Law of the River

Uses of the waters of the Colorado River are apportioned among
the seven Basin states and Mexico in accordance with interstate
compacts, court decrees, a treaty, federal law, and federal
contracts, collectively referred to as the "Law of the River". The
apportionments of all the Colorado River Basin states to the use of
water from the Colorado River pursuant to the "Law of the River"
will be recognized in these discussions. By entering into these
discussions, each of the Colorado River Basin states affirms the
Colorado River Compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Upper
Colorado River Compact, and the Colorado River Basin Project Act
and recognizes the rights established by the Decree of the United
States Supreme Court in Arizona v. California and the Mexican Water
Treaty of 1944. Each state retains the right to develop its use of
apportioned water as that state may determine subject to those uses
being determined to be reasonable and beneficial. Additionally,
each state recognizes the obligation that the consumptive use of
water within that state must ultimately remain within that state's
annual apportionment, as defined by the Law of the River, as the
other states fully develop their use of compact apportioned water.

B. Colorado River Svstem Reservoirs

Reservoirs have been constructed on the Colorado River and its
tributaries by the United States to:

o regulate the flow of the Colorado River,
o control floods,
o improve navigation,
o provide for storage, and for the delivery of
the stored waters for reclamation of public

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