Efforts to update short-term guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam operations in the Colorado River system are expected to save at least 3 million acre-ft of water through end-use reductions of 2026. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Reclamation released a final supplemental environmental impact statement on March 5 with a preferred alternative that officials say reflects a consensus-based approach to addressing the possibility of continued low-runoff conditions in the Colorado River Basin.
The proposed guidelines would allow Lake Powell releases in Utah and Arizona to be reduced by up to 6 million acre-ft if projections show the lake’s surface elevation to drop below 3,500 feet within the next 12 months.
BuRec Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton told reporters during a March 4 call that the milestone means the Biden administration “has avoided the immediate possibility of reservoirs in the Colorado River system falling to very low levels that would threaten the water supply and energy production”.
Investments in conservation and improved hydrology have already helped Lake Mead’s surface elevation reach 1,075 feet, its highest level since May 2021, according to the bureau. Lake Mead is 29 feet higher than a year ago, and Lake Powell upstream is 41 feet higher. However, Powell is still full at 34% and Mead at 37%.
Forty million people in seven states depend on water from the Colorado River. Lake Mead, created by the Hoover Dam, is the largest reservoir in the United States. Lake Powell, created by Glen Canyon Dam, is the second largest.
Recovery officials also announced that they had reached three new system conservation implementation agreements in California. They include one with Bard Water District in cooperation with Metropolitan Water District, which commits to conserving up to 18,090 acre-ft of water; a second agreement with Coachella Valley Water District committing up to 30,000 acre-ft of conserved water in addition to another agreement with Coachella Valley signed in December; and one with the Palo Verde Irrigation District in cooperation with the Metropolitan Water District committing to maintain up to 351,063 acre-ft of conserved water through 2026.
Officials say they now have 24 conservation agreements in California and Arizona to conserve up to 1.58 million acre-ft of water with $670.2 million from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Michael Brain, the Interior Department’s principal assistant secretary for water and science, said officials are poised to make additional targeted investments in the coming months in watersheds such as the Klamath, Columbia and Rio Grande rivers and California’s Central Valley . The Inflation Reduction Act includes $4.6 billion to address the drought in the West.
Interim operating guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam operations expire at the end of 2026. Separate negotiations are also underway to protect the Colorado River basin beginning in 2027, although dry conditions continue being a problem Touton said the current agreement frees up officials to focus on those long-term conservation efforts. Reclamation officials expect to complete a draft environmental impact statement this year.
“Supply and demand is an issue that we will deal with in the future and we need to consider innovative solutions,” Touton said. “As people are developing alternatives, those are the things we’re looking at, so we have a robust set of forward-looking solutions.”
