Some info from a related story in the IV Press today:
QUOTE
Millions allotted for water supply studies
By BENJAMIN ROGERS, Special to this newspaper
Friday, July 8, 2005 2:32 PM PDT
WASHINGTON (MNS) —Congress may soon take a step toward solving water supply problems in the Imperial Valley.
As part of a $31.2 billion spending bill, the Senate last week set aside more than $8.2 million for the Colorado Front Work and Levee System, much of it earmarked for feasibility studies for special reservoirs along the All-American Canal and for sediment removal behind Laguna Dam.
The money, significantly more than requested in President Bush's budget, would fund continuing work on the canal reservoirs, said Bob Walsh, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Lower Colorado regional office.
Reclamation originally requested only $2.5 million for maintenance and studies. The House version of the appropriations bill increased that spending to $3.2 million and the Senate version passed with $8.2 million. The extra money is earmarked for studying ways to minimize water loss along the system.
The increased funding came at the request of governors from various Southwestern states, said Roger Cochran of the Senate appropriations staff.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, pushed for the funding and even asked for more, but $8.2 was as much as Reclamation could feasibly use, Cochran said.
"There was a pretty united front on this thing," he said.
Because the bill was modified in the Senate, it still has to pass a Senate-House conference committee, which often compromises on money numbers, before any presidential signature.
Under the current system, irrigation water requested for the Imperial or Coachella valleys is released from the Imperial Dam into the system. The water takes about three days to arrive and if, because of rain or other factors, it is no longer needed upon arrival it flows unused into Mexico.
The new reservoirs would capture that unused water and save it for future orders, Walsh said.
Estimates submitted to Congress detail a system able to save up to 300,000 acre-feet more of water per year than the current system. That's enough water to supply the needs of 1.5 million users and enough to drop the water level of Lake Mead by three feet, said Jack Simes, a project manager at Reclamation's office in Yuma.
Some of the outlay would go to fund studies on the proposed All-American Canal Drop 2 Reservoir site west of the Imperial Sand Dunes.
The proposed site would sit on 621 acres and include two cells capable of holding up to 4,000 acre-feet of water each. A public hearing on the reservoir project is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the boardroom of the Imperial Irrigation District, 1285 Broadway in El Centro.
Actual construction on any proposed reservoirs is still at least two years away, Simes said.
The extra money would fund feasibility studies for removing sediment behind Laguna Dam, a 43-foot structure just outside of Yuma. That dam, completed in 1909 and the first anywhere on the Colorado River, hasn't undergone serious sediment removal since a controlled flood release in 1983, Simes said. Until Reclamation completes its studies, however, it is unclear how much capacity would be freed by removing the sediment, he said.
Since the completion of the larger Imperial Dam in 1938, the Laguna Dam has served as a smaller flow regulator.
J/K.. Would like to see that map though of where they propose to "store" water.
