HomeMy WebLinkAbout1976-01-29 - Resolution No. 76-02•
RESOLUTION NO. 76- 2
RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE YORBA LINDA
COUNTY WATER DISTRICT CONCERNING COLORADO RIVER BOARD OF
CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board of California was established
by the State Legislature in 1937 to protect California's rights
to the water and power resources of the Colorado River, and
WHEREAS, this action by the legislature was taken in recognition
of the great dependence of the resources of the river of the six
public agencies represented on the board and their citizens, these
agencies being the Metropolitan Water District of Southern Calif-
ornia, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the San
Diego County Water Authority, the Coachella Valley County Water
District, the Imperial Irrigation District and the Palo Verde Ir-
rigation District, and
WHEREAS, the board, largely because of its official status as an
agency of the State of California, has now for nearly 40 years
been highly successful in meeting its tremendous responsibility,
and
WHEREAS, in recent years in line with the primary aspect of that
responsibility, it has been the main force in creating for the
first time a unified and cooperative approach among the seven
Colorado River Basin states toward solving the many complex prob-
lems the river still presents, and
WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board and its staff have provided not
only leadership in meeting river problems but also a wealth of
expertise that is regularly relied upon by both the other basin
states and the Federal Government, and
WHEREAS, the Colorado River represents either a full or supplemental
source of water for some 11 million citizens of California, irrigates
some 800,000 acres of California farmland and makes a significant
contribution to the state's energy supply through the hydroelectric
power generated at the dams on the river, and
WHEREAS, the Yorba Linda County Water District as well as the
majority of Orange County depend upon the Colorado River as a
source of its imported water supply, and
WHEREAS, Governor Brown's 1976-77 budget has proposed the elimin-
ation of the state's one-third funding for the Colorado River Board
as the announced first step toward elimination of the board as a
state agency and a takeover of its functions by the State Department
of Water Resources, and
0 0
WHEREAS, this proposal displays a lack of understanding of the
importance of the board to the people of California, the highly
effective role it has played in protecting the immense interests
of the state in the resources of the river and the overriding
necessity for the board to continue to function in substantially
the manner it has, and
WHEREAS, this proposal cannot be fairly represented as a cost-
saving measure since board members have informally expressed the
willingness of their agencies to provide the entire funding for the
board themselves, and
WHEREAS, it would in a single stroke destroy the sound and pro-
ductive working relationship the board, in meeting its basic
responsibility, has developed over many years with the counterpart
agencies which exist in all the other basin states and with the
Federal Government, and
WHEREAS, the California Department of Water Resources is not now
staffed to handle Colorado River problems in any adequate manner,
and
WHEREAS, if this effort on the part of the State Administration
should prove successful, California's vast stake in the Colorado
River's water and power resources would be seriously endangered:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Directors of the
Yorba Linda County Water District does hereby at this its adjourned
meeting of-January 29, 1976, strongly urge Governor Brown to re-
consider his plan for elimination of the Colorado River Board, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of the State Legislature
be asked to exert their best efforts to retain the board in sub-
stantially its present form.
Passed and Adopted by the following roll call vote on January 29'76:
Ayes: Clodt, Wagner, Knauft, Lindow and Korn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstain: None
G/ r
- President
ATTEST:
_
SecrEarv