| Office of the Secretary | Contact: Frank Quimby |
| For Immediate Release: November 21, 2002 | 202-208-7291 |
Secretary Norton Addresses California Water Issues
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today stressed the gravity and urgency of decisions facing California water agencies as they work to honor the promise that California made in 1929 to live within its allocation of 4.4 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River.
"We understand the competing interests of growing urban and suburban communities and rural farmers," she told representatives of the Association of California Water Agencies. "We are also acutely aware of the anxiety in the Imperial Valley. We realize the challenges posed by the Salton Sea and the Endangered Species Act."
But the reward for success is access to surplus or extra water from the Colorado River for the next 15 years, Norton said.
Her remarks to the group underscored Interior's responsibilities for managing the operations of the Colorado River and working with state and local groups on CALFED--the public-private consortium addressing Bay-Delta water issues.
Norton expressed confidence that the state's water districts would "meet the requirements that are the result of a decade-long process between the Department of the Interior and the seven Colorado Basin states, but stressed that if these requirements are not met by December 31 of this year, California will lose access to as much as 800,000 acre feet of extra water from the Colorado River in 2003. Norton expressed her hope that the hard work of all of the parties will result in success, but cautioned that the December 31 deadline is rapidly approaching. "We are now only one month plus one week from mandatory action," she said.
Norton's remarks were made during the fall meeting of the Association of California Water Agencies at the Disney Hotel in Anaheim, California.
--DOI--