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Show 34 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS agencies would receive and use the Colorado River water was outside the coastal plain. Hence, the consent of the Secretary and the other California Colorado River water contractors was needed to this change of place of use by MWD. The two agreements evidencing this consent were executed by appropriate parties to the California Seven-Party Agreement and the Secretary of the Interior on December 1, 1972, on the basis that there would be no additional demand on the Colorado River. B.8.2 Southern California Edison Company - San Diego Gas and Electric Company The DWA and CVCWD consent agreements were the first time the use of MWD's Colorado River water entitlement outside the coastal plain of southern California was approved and became the basis for a later proposal involving MWD water deliveries for a nuclear powerplant planned by Southern California Edison Company (SCE) on the Mohave Desert near Vidal, California. These, together with the exchange principle established thereby, were the bases for a similar proposal by San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) for a nuclear powerplant near Blythe California. MWD has conditionally agreed to make not more than 100,000 acre-feet of water available annually for nuclear plants on the Mohave Desert out of its Colorado River entitlement (see General Manager's memorandum of March 9, 1973, to the MWD Board of Directors). MWD's reasons were that MWD would provide the needed water for the nuclear plants if they were located on the coastal plain and that the power produced therefrom would be used within MWD's service area. A draft consent agreement designated "Revised March 1, 1974 (Field Solicitor, Riverside)" was patterned after the MWD exchanges with DWA and CVCWD. Under it SCE would utilize up to 40,000 acre-feet per year of MWD entitlement of Colorado River water out of the MWD aqueduct for use outside the coastal plain, but this agreement has been held in abeyance, apparently waiting the outcome of the SDG&E proposal next discussed. The SDG&E proposal to construct a nuclear generating station near Blythe, California, in which the City of Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power, and the California Department of Water Resources would join, involves the use of 17,000 acre-feet of drainage water per year diverted by SDG&E from the Palo Verde Lagoon or Outfall Drain. In exchange, MWD would reduce the quantity of water it would otherwise divert from Lake Havasu by an equivalent amount and thereby replace the drain water with Colorado River water diverted by SDG&E. The process would reduce the salinity of the water in the river (which is ultimately delivered to users in the United States and Mexico) by 3 to 4 parts per million. In addition to the foregoing diversion of 17,000 acre-feet of drain water, SDG&E has purchased approximately 7,300 acres of irrigated lands within the Palo Verde Irrigation District (PVID) and plans to utilize at its proposed nuclear plant approximately 33,300 acre-feet of the water which otherwise would have been applied to irrigate those lands; i.e., the number of acres of SDG&E land within the District irrigated by Colorado River water would be reduced proportionately. This would reduce PVID's diversions by 33,300 acre-feet annually and its consumptive use by 17,000 acre-feet annually in order to allow the quantity of water otherwise consumptively used to be diverted for use at the nuclear plant. However, that additional 33,300 acre-feet of water would also be diverted from the Palo Verde Outfall Drain except that, upon a finding by the Secretary as to its unavailability from the Drain, direct diversions from the Colorado River would be permitted during the period of unavailability. This additional use of the Outfall Drain water would further reduce the salinity of the Colorado River flows for downstream users and at Imperial Dam. Two agreements designated "Revised Field Solicitor 11/1/74" and reflecting the aforesaid arrangements between SDG&E, the United States and the parties to the California Seven-Party Agreement (except the County of San Diego and the City of Los Angeles) were executed December 10, 1976. Under each agreement the Secretary reserved the right to confirm or withdraw therefrom on the basis of his evaluation of the Environmental Impact Statements to be prepared later in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The two latter agreements would represent the first use in the Lower Basin of the so-called "brackish water"; i.e., having approximately 1,800 p/m, for use in a generating station. The SDG&E agreement |
