And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: the following provided by Marsha ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------- Date: 8/5/99 8:16 AM From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (George Kourous) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --start forwarded text--- Deal paves way for California to cut use of Colorado River By Michelle Williams Associated Press Writer SAN DIEGO (AP) -- After years of bickering, California's three biggest users of the Colorado River have agreed on a new distribution plan aimed at ending a decades-old practice of the state taking more than its share. The Colorado is the lifeblood of booming cities and suburbs across the West, and California's overuse has angered other states sharing the water. In a break with western law and tradition, the deal reached Wednesday allows rural water districts to transfer their surplus to rapidly-growing urban areas. "As water becomes scarcer and scarcer, and growth happens, it's important to remove barriers to enable water to go where it need to goes," said David Hayes, an aide to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt who helped broker the deal. The agreement involves the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a powerful agency that indirectly provides water to 16 million people; the Imperial Irrigation District, which serves farms in the state's southeast corner; and the smaller Coachella Valley Water District serving farmers farther north. Details of the verbal pact were not disclosed pending approval by governing boards of the water districts. But the long-feuding agencies generally agreed to accept less water, to pay more for the infrastructure transporting the water and to stop filing lawsuits over conservation squabbles. "This gives us a framework," Imperial spokeswoman Susan Giller said. "We've taken a very big step in helping California set a long-term water use strategy." Under a multistate agreement dating to 1922, California is allowed to draw 4.4 million acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado to supplement other sources, principally snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada. An acre-foot is about enough to supply two families of four for a year. The federal government has regularly allowed the nation's most populous state to take more than its share, sometimes up to 5.2 million acre-feet per year. That was possible partly because the other users of the river -- Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New >>Mexico<< -- didn't need their full shares. >>Mexico<< and some western Indian tribes also use the river as a water source. But a population boom in the West turned up the pressure from the other states on California. Babbitt instructed the state to start living within its allotment or face forced annual reductions. "Because of this agreement, the goal of bringing California's take of Colorado River water under control is now more clearly in sight," said Babbitt, whose aides estimated it could take several years before California reached compliance. San Diego County Water Authority spokesman Dennis Cushman called the deal a positive step, but added many steps remain. "In our experience, it's not done until it's done," he said. ### 30 ### ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ g e o r g e k o u r o u s Editor, borderlines U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Program Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) Tel: 505.388.0208 Fax: 505.388.0619 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.irc-online.org/bordline/ Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more information Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
