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interstate water, and that would be the Red River, which we're going to get to fairly shortly. I'm going to
<br />talk to you about the Red River Compact, which is a division or allocation of the water between Texas,
<br />Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. The water that flows in the Red River. They're exercising that control
<br />because it is interstate water. It touches the states as it flows from its origin down to the Gulf of Mexico.
<br />Let me move to a brief discussion of the Red River Compact.
<br />Questions specifically raised are Is that compact relevnt to this committee's charge. Well, the easy
<br />answer to that is yes, because if you were to look at the Paris water rights, the certificates of adjudication
<br />that you hold from the state, they expressly say that the rights granted here are subject to the Red River
<br />Compact. So by the very terms of the document giving you the right to use it, it is subject to that. Having
<br />said that, the Red River Compact while it generally allocates this water between the four different
<br />jurisdictions, it is a very complicated compact. It has some defined areas that are subject to the individual
<br />controt of the individual states. And there is a specific identified subject, Sanders Creek, identified as a
<br />water body that up to the point of the last dam on Sanders Creek, which is Pat Mayse Reservoir, is under
<br />the exclusive control of the State of Texas, and Texas has the right to all water in the tributary, and
<br />Sanders Creek is a tributary to the Red River up to that dam. Beyond that dam, the water that goes over
<br />the dam is subject to the compact, and it is subject to having to meet a requirement of the purity, if there
<br />is a 3,000 cubic feet per second flow at the border of Arkansas and Louisiana. And each of those four
<br />jurisdictions cannot get more than 25 percent of the water thaYs available above that 3,000 cfs flow. This
<br />is getting complicated, but what this means in very lay language is if you went in to get a permit for water
<br />below Pat Mayse Reservoir, you would get it from the State of Texas, but in doing their determination
<br />about whether there was water available for appropriation, they would run their water availability model,
<br />and one of the things that's input to the model is downstream, we've got to have 3,000 cfs of flow.
<br />Modeling is very complicated, but it basically tracks all water coming into the Red River, and it can tell you
<br />when you're going to have appropriations that will interfere with this 3,000 cfs flow. And once they
<br />determine that water is available for appropriation, yet Texas' share of that water cannot exceed 25
<br />percent of that above the 3,000 cfs. I think if they found that there was water available for appropriation,
<br />and if there was not more than 25 percent of all of that water that's subject to compact, has already been
<br />appropriated in Texas, they could issue an appropriative water right for that. All of their water right
<br />permitting decisions take lots of time by most people's standard. Eighteen months is fast to get a water
<br />rights permit through the TCEQ, but this one would be complicated and it would require a lot of technical
<br />expertise to assist with the analysis, but it should be investigated and should be evaluated. So, the short
<br />answer is the Red River Compact does apply; however, by its express terms, all the water from the Pat
<br />Mayse Reservoir upstream is within the sole control of the State of Texas, and they're the entity that
<br />issues the permit and they don't ever have to release any water from Pat Mayse to satisfy this 3,000 csf
<br />flow. ThaYs going to come from the waters below these identified reservoirs.
<br />One of the issues y'alf have looked at is the issue of either raising the elevation of the reservoir to
<br />increase storage, or to reallocate some of the storage that's in there now, and I saw a question raised
<br />about could you get a permit for water that flows over the dam into Sanders Creek and off into the Red
<br />River. So after having discussed this thing about the compact, let me try to address your specific
<br />question.
<br />If you were to try to reallocate the water that's in the reservoir now, which is really three levels of water,
<br />you have your sedimentation pool, and you have your conservation pool, which is where your water is,
<br />between 415 and 451 msl. And above that you have flood storage. You could approach the Corps and I
<br />know your staff has met with the Corps to discuss this issue and how the process would work about
<br />trying to re-evaluate those pools of water, and see if more water could be moved into the conservation
<br />pool, thaYs a Corps decision. They're the ones who own the reservoir, they're the one who set these
<br />allocations in the first place, pursuant to their Congressional mandate for both flood control purposes and
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