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Show 112 UPDATING THE HOOVER DAM DOCUMENTS the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund for money "heretofore or hereafter" expended therefrom to meet deficiencies in generation at Hoover Dam during the filling period of storage units of the Colorado River Storage Project pursuant to the filling criteria. The text of Section 502 follows: "The Upper Colorado River Basin Fund established under section 5 of the Colorado River Storage Project Act (70 Stat. 107; 43 U.S.C. 620d) shall be reimbursed from the Colorado River Development Fund established by section 2 of the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act (54 Stat. 774; 43 U.S.C. 618a) for the money expended heretofore or hereafter from the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund to meet deficiencies in generation at Hoover Dam during the filling period of storage units of the Colorado River Storage Project pursuant to the criteria for the filling of Glen Canyon Reservoir (27 Fed. Reg. 6851, July 19, 1962). For this purpose, $500,000 for each year of operation of Hoover Dam and Powerplant, commencing with fiscal year 1970, shall be transferred from the Colorado River Development Fund to the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund, in lieu of application of said amounts to the purposes stated in section 2(d) of the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act, until such reimbursement is accomplished. To the extent that any deficiency in such reimbursement remains as of June 1, 1987, the amount of the remaining deficiency shall then be transferred to the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund from the Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund, as provided in subsection (g) of section 403." In 1969, during the formulation of the operating criteria pursuant to Section 602 of the Colorado River Basin Project Act, the Upper Basin interests again sought termination of the filling criteria through the exercise of the Secretary's option to terminate. By memorandum of February 25, 1969, the Regional Director of the Bureau of Reclamation at Salt Lake City, Utah, recommended that the Commissioner of Reclamation concur with the Upper Basin position that the Upper Basin Fund be reimbursed for all expenditures to meet deficiencies and impairments in generation at Hoover Dam during the filling period of the storage units. This would include costs associated with operations at Lake Mead below as well as above elevation 1123. By memorandum of April 23, 1969, the Commissioner rejected that suggestion as inconsistent with the filling criteria. On October 1, 1969, the Upper Colorado River Commission adopted a resolution requesting the Secretary of the Interior to discontinue the Hoover deficiency payments made from the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. The Commission asked that this action be effective July 1, 1970, when the operating criteria were to be effective. The request was not granted. A similar request for termination of the filling criteria was made in a letter of March 31, 1970, from the Governors of the four Upper Division States to the Secretary. The Chief Engineer's comments thereon were provided the Commissioner by memorandum dated April 7, 1970. As stated in the Secretary's response of June 8, 1970, to the Governors of the Basin States, the Department concluded to continue the filling criteria. However, the Secretary attempted to meet the objections of the Upper Basin States in part by stating that, except as limited by minor variations in marketing conditions, all energy to meet Hoover deficiencies in the future was expected to be purchased, and under Section 502 of Public Law 90-537, these costs would be repaid to the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. On February 27, 1971, the Upper Colorado River Commission passed a resolution that the Secretary reverse his 1970 decision to continue the filling criteria. The Secretary did not change that decision. Again in 1975, the Upper and Lower Colorado Regional Offices of the Bureau of Reclamation drafted a notice which would terminate the filling criteria on the grounds that the combined active storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead was essentially equal to 41 maf and that the intended purpose of the filling criteria had been satisfied. The notice was not adopted by the Department of the Interior and the filling criteria were continued as viable guidelines. |
