OCR Text |
Show 305 V. Mainstream Allocation: Conclusion . ... It may be useful at this point to summarize the apportionment which controls the consumption of water diverted from Lake Mead and from the mainstream of the Colorado River below Lake Mead for use in Arizona, California and Nevada under the decree recommended in this Report. The Secretary of the Interior determines the total amount of water to be released from Lake Mead and from the several reservoirs on the mainstream of the Colorado River below Hoover Dam for consumptive use in Arizona, California and Nevada. That determination is solely within the Secretary's reasoned discretion and presumably is based on the amount of water in Lake Mead and the reservoirs below, the amount necessary to satisfy the United States treaty obligations to Mexico, necessities of "river regulation, improvement of navigation, and flood control," predictions as to future supply, and other relevant conditions in the River Basin. The only specific limitation on his discretion is that he must follow the priorities set forth in Section 6 of the Project Act. The supply of water available for consumptive use in the three states, then, is neither more nor less than the quantity of water that the Secretary annually releases for this purpose. Of the mainstream water released for consumptive use in the United States, the first 7,500,000 acre-feet of annual consumptive use is apportioned as follows: 2,800,000 acre-feet for use in Arizona; 4,400,000 acre-feet in California; 300,000 acre-feet in Nevada. If sufficient mainstream water is released in one year to satisfy more than 7,500,000 acre-feet of consumptive use in the three states, such additional consumptive use is surplus and is apportioned as follows: 50% to California1* lBSubject, at the present time, to a total maximum consumption in California of 5,362,000 acre-feet under existing contracts. See pp. 208, 223-224, supra. |
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Original Report: State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California |