Memorandum Concerning Colorado River Basin Project Legislation

Memorandum: To Members, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado River Advisory Committee, et.al., from Colorado River Conservation Board, "Colorado River Basin Project Legislation - Requiem," June 6, 1967, page 1COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD 215 State Services Building 1525 Sherman Street Denver, Colorado 80203 June 6, 1967 MEMORANDUM TO: Members, Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado River Advisory Committee, and Colorado Congressional Delegation. FROM: Felix L. Sparks, Director. SUBJECT: Colorado River Basin Project Legislation-Requiem. It now appears that the Colorado River Basin Project legislation has no chance of passage during the 90th Congress. The legislation is now at an impasse because of the two problems which heretofore have been pointed out, namely, the Hualapai Dam and the import items. The only hope for the legislation is that the Senate will pass a bill which is in substantial accordance with H.R. 3300. This possibility appears to be remote. Some brief review of the incidents leading up to the present impasse appear to be in order, as follows: Germane to the issue of the Hualapai Dam and importing water into the Colorado River Basin is a portion of Governor Love's letter to the Secretary of the Interior under date of November 27, 1963, concerning the Pacific Southwest Water Plan. That portion states as follows: "To be specific, the Colorado River Compact provides by Article III (d) that the states of the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of ten consecutive years reckoned in continuing progressive series. It is our firm position, substantiated by historic records, that this required delivery, together with tributary waters below Lee Ferry, is sufficient to furnish the Lower Basin states with the consumptive use of 7,500,000 acre-feet of water annually specified in Article III (a) of the compact and with the consumptive use of 1,000,000 acre-feet of water set forth in Article III (b), along with the Mexican Treaty requirements of 1,500,000 acre-feet of waterEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,552,711 byte