The Interior Department warned on Oct. 28 that it is initiating a revision to the current interim operating guidelines for the operation of the Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam to address the likelihood of continued low runoff conditions across the Colorado River Basin.
The announcement from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Commissioner Camille Touton comes after the Lower and Upper Basin states on the Colorado River failed to agree on a plan by the August deadline to reduce 2-4 million acre-feet (an acre-foot is equal to 325,851 gallons) of water for the 2023 water year.
“Revising the current interim operating guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams represents one of many critical departmental efforts underway to better protect the system in light of rapidly changing conditions in the Basin,” Haaland said in a statement.
The BOR unveiled three options in its notice of intent.
• The first option would build on the commitments developed by the Basin states, Tribes and nongovernmental organizations as part of the 2019 Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). The 2019 DCP requires the Upper Basin states to maintain levels in Lake Powell through releases from upstream federal reservoirs and Lower Basin states to conserve water to maintain levels at Lake Mead.
• In the second option, BOR would impose unilateral action that it threatened during the summer. Touton said at a Senate hearing the Basin states need to adopt a plan to conserve 2-4 million acre-feet to ensure that water deliveries and hydroelectric power production are not disrupted.
• The last option would stay the course, and the Basin states would continue to operate under existing agreements. “Intensive ongoing efforts to achieve water conservation actions in the Basin are underway through a number of programs, including the recent Inflation Reduction Act,” the statement read. The Inflation Reduction Act allocated $4 billion in funding for conservation measures, including the payment of up to $400 per acre for water conservation measures.
BOR published a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for the 2007 Interim Guidelines, which dictate how much water is withdrawn from Lake Mead and Lake Powell based on their current surface elevations.
BOR expects to publish a draft SEIS, which will include a proposed action, by spring 2023, and a decision could come by that summer. The public can comment on the three options through Dec. 20, but as of WLJ press time, information had yet to be published in the Federal Register. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
