OCR Text |
Show PART XII ALTERNATIVE LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT No. 1--State Alternative To The Framework Plan (6.5 Million Acre-Feet Level of Development) For comparative purposes, the States have proposed an alternative development of the quantity required to satisfy the regionally inter- preted OBERS level of development (6.5 m.a.f. per annum). The distribution of use by each State exactly equals the Upper Colorado River Compact percentage allotments. Adjustments in types of uses to accomplish the exact percentages were expressed by the respective States. State Proposals In the regionally interpreted OBERS plan, there is the need to service a large electric power market from potential fuel-burning electric powerplants in the Upper Colorado Region. Each of the States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming have programmed a part of their water resources for production of such energy. Previously, the States had agreed to maintain levels of water development very close to their respective percentage allotments in the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact. Without upsetting a multitude of water uses set forth in the regionally interpreted OBERS plan, the approximate State per- centages could be maintained only by an arbitrary assignment to each State of portions of the needed power installations as necessary to bring each State's total water uses to amounts approximating the Compact percentages. Although the result depicted a reasonable satis- faction, on a region-wide basis, of the requirements for a regionally interpreted OBERS plan, there were certain objectionable features in the plan, particularly to Colorado and Utah. To facilitate the comparison, departures from the basic data contained in the regionally interpreted OBERS are given herein. In the revised year 2020 distribution, Arizona retained its exact allotment of 50,000 acre-feet per annum with no change in types of uses. Wyoming also suggested no changes in its type of uses but revised its irrigation depletions downward 900 acre-feet per annum to stay exactly within its 14 percent allotment. 56 |