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14112 Criteria for Coordinated Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs Section 602 of P.L. 90-537, the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, requires the Secretary of the Interior to submit proposed criteria for the long-range coordinated opera- tion of Lake Mead and the Colorado River Storage Project Act reservoirs to the gover- nors of the Colorado River Basin states prior to January 1, 1970, and to adopt criteria no later than July 1, 1970. The Colorado River Board's 1969 Annual Report summarized the work of the Federal-State Task Force during that year and listed the major features of the proposed criteria which the Secretary of the Interior on December 16, 1969, transmitted to Governor Reagan and to the governors of. the other Colorado River Basin states. The Secretary requested comments on the proposed criteria by April 1, 1970, and ad- vised that the final criteria would be pub- lished by July 1, 1970. The Secretary also stated that the Glen Canyon Filling Criteria were considered to be a separate matter and that comments on the continuation of the Filling Criteria would be received until April 1, 1970. The proposed long-range operating crite- ria were generally satisfactory to California. However, a number of modifications in lan- guage were recommended. To establish a unified Lower Basin position, California coordinated its comments with Arizona and Nevada as the states of the Upper Basin had done in presenting their comments through the Upper Colorado River Commission. The official comments of the State of California were combined with those of Arizona and Nevada, formally transmitted to the Secre- tary of the Interior by a letter dated March 13,1970, and signed by the governors ofthese three states. On April 16, 1970, Assistant Secretary of the Interior James Smith transmitted to Gov- ernor Reagan the comments by the states of the Upper Colorado River Basin on the proposed operating criteria. California's rebuttal statement to these comments was signed by Governor Reagan and transmitted 18 to the Secretary of the Interior on May 14, 1970. The final "Criteria for Coordinated Long- Range Operation of Colorado River Reser- voirs" was transmitted by the Secretary of the Interior to the governors of the seven Colorado River Basin states on June 8, 1970, and was published in the Federal Register. On June 9, 1970, the Commissioner of Recla- mation transmitted a detailed explanation of the decisions on each of the recommenda- tions made by the Upper and Lower Basin states in their comments on the proposed cri- teria of December 16, 1969. The criteria adopted retained the major concepts of the December 16, 1969, proposed criteria initially proposed by California. Al- though the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada were satisfied with the criteria, the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the Upper Colorado River Commission criticized the criteria severely. " j .' Glen Canyon Filling Criteria The Glen Canyon Filling Criteria, an- nounced by the Secretary of the Interior on April 4, 1962, provides that the United States will compensate the Hoover power allottees either in power or money for any deficiency in firm energy generation at Hoover Power Plant caused by the filling of Lake Powell. The filling period is defined as the time inter- val between initial storage in Lake Powell (March 13, 1963) and the date Lake Powell storage first attains elevation 3,700 feet (27.0 million acre-feet total storage) and Lake Mead storage is simultaneously at or above elevation 1,146 feet (I7.0 million acre-feet available storage) or May 31, 1987, whichev- er occurs first. The Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, P.L. 90-537, provides that, beginning in fiscal year 1970, $500,000 per year shall be transferred from the Colo- rado River Development Fund (established by the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act) to the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund to reimburse said fund for deficiency payments made under the Filling Criteria.