Home Page     News & Information     River Basin Plans     Basin Advisory Groups     Planning Products    

California Seven Party Agreement

Before the Secretary entered into water delivery contracts under the Boulder Canyon Project Act with users in California, he requested the State to agree on a listing of the relative priorities of rights among the major users of Colorado River waters. This was done by the "California Seven-Party Agreement" of August 18, 1931, which contained the following priorities:

									
							        Acre-feet
  Priority	       Description      			Annually


    1		Palo Verde Irrigation District			
                gross area of 104,500 acres			

    2		Yuma Project (Reservation Division		
	        not exceeding a gross area of 25,000	 
		acres		                               3,850,000

    3(a)	Imperial Irrigation District and lands in	
	  	Imperial and Coachella Valleys		
 	        to be served by AAC			

    3(b)	Palo Verde Irrigation District			
  	        16,000 acres of mesa lands			

    4		Metropolitan Water District
  	        and/or City of Los Angeles
        	and/or others on coastal plain			550,000  

    5(a)	Metropolitan Water District
        	and/or City of Los Angeles and/or
        	others on coastal plain				550,000

    5(b)	City and/or County of San Diego			112,000	

    6(a)	Imperial Irrigation District and lands in	
	        Imperial and Coachella Valley		
	  							300,000

    6(b)	Palo Verde Irrigation District			
        	16,000 acres of mesa lands			
				                             __________
						TOTAL	      5,362,000	                     

The Secretary of the Interior placed the California Seven Party Agreement of August 18, 1931, in effect by general regulations dated September 28, 1931. The provisions of the Seven Party Agreement were also incorporated by the Secretary in substantially the same form in each of the subsequent California water delivery contracts entered into by the Secretary.

Note that the first three California priorities total 3.85 maf/yr and are for agricultural uses. Note also that the first four California priorities total 4.4 maf and equate to that quantity to which California is held by its Limitation Act. The 4.4 maf is also the quantity accorded a priority over the Central Arizona Project by Section 301(b) of the Colorado River Basin Project Act.

Water Delivery Contracts For Colorado River Water in the Lower Colorado River Basin:

During the period 1930-1934 the Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to the Boulder Canyon Project Act, executed contracts on behalf of the United States with five California agencies (Imperial Irrigation District, Palo Verde Irrigation District, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Coachella Valley County Water District and the City of San Diego) for the delivery of water from Lake Mead, subject to the availability thereof, for use in California under the Compact and Project Act. As noted in D. above, the priorities assigned to each contractor and the quantifies of water to be made available therefor under these contracts could, in the aggregate, call for the delivery of 5,362,000 acre-feet of water per year. There is no water delivery contract with the State of California itself similar to those with the States of Nevada and Arizona.

By contracts dated March 30, 1942, and January 3, 1944, made by the Secretary of the Interior with the State of Nevada, the United States agreed to deliver to Nevada from Lake Mead storage so much water as might be necessary to supply the State with a total quantity of water from the Colorado River System not to exceed 300,000 acre-feet per year, subject to the availability thereof for use in Nevada under the Compact and Project Act.

The State of Arizona entered into a contract with the Secretary of the Interior on February 9, 1944, wherein the United States agreed to deliver annually to Arizona and its water users from storage in Lake Mead so much water as might be necessary for irrigation and domestic uses in Arizona of a maximum of 2.8 maf/yr plus one-half of any surplus water unapportioned by the Compact, subject to the availability thereof for use in Arizona under the Compact and Project Act. Nevada was accorded the right under Article 7(f) to contract for 1/25th of any surplus water available in the Lower Basin.


   Citizen    Government    Business    Visitor   Privacy Policy