WSP06879

• 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 III
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Bureau of Reclamation
Administrative Record
Lower ColoradO Regional Office
P. O. Box 61470
Boulder City, Nevada 89006-1470

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RX.....ER COMM

UPPER COLORADO
RIVER COMMiSSION

355 South 400 East. salti~'l:~~, -~ ~!i~~3'-1150. FAX [phone]

to,......
I rt.PL Y DATE
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Phonll'

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Dear Reclamation Staff: I Cvrrtro/ No.
CFcYJel to.
On behalf of the Upper Divisio'l'St~te~lljhe Upper COlonldu ~r Commission (Commission)
appreciates the opportunity to comment on your recent Fbd~egister Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking "Offstream Storage of Colorado River Water and Interstate Redemption of storage
Credits in the Lower Division States" (62 FR 68492, December 31, 1997) and your Draft
"Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Proposed Rule Making for Offstream Storage of
Colorado River Water and Interstate Redemption of Storage Credits in the Lower Division States."
The Upper Division States believe that the proposed rule and the environmental assessment (EA)
on the rule are positive steps toward helping the Lower Division States solve the water supply
problems they face now end in the future,

As you know, in 1992 the seven Colorado River Basin States began meeting with
representatives of some of the Colorado River Indian tribes to discuss water-related problems in the
Basin and possible solutions. One of the primary topics of discussion in these meetings, which
came to be know as the "7/10 meetings," was the State of California's current use of more than her
basic entitlement of water in the Colorado River Compact and the State of Nevada's projected need
for more water than her basic entitlement within the near future, The initial response of the four
Upper Division States was that these issues were basically a Lower Division States problem, so the
Lower Division States began meeting on their own to find solutions to their water sUIlPly needs.
Discussions continued among the Lower Division States intermittently, but in rnid-1996 the Upper
Division States assisted in implementing regular and productive ongoing seven Basin States
negotiations.

The Upper Division States remain committed to helping the Lower Division States find
solutions to their water supply problems. The Upper Division States have two goals of their own in
this process: (1) ensure that any solution to Lower Division water supply problems limit the uses of
water in the Lower Colorado River Basin to the entiUements set forth in the Colorado River Compact,
as further defined by the Boulder Canyon Project Act and the United States supreme Court's opinion
and decree in Arizona v. CaUfomia; and (2) provide for the continued protection and use of Colorado
River water allocations in the Upper Basin States, The Upper Division States believe Reclamation's