With the river possibly in its driest period in 1,200 years and facing an uncertain climate and hydrological future, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants public comments on what issues should be covered for its reservoirs.
Tony Davis For many decades, the Colorado River was managed with the attitude that its water levels would remain roughly stable over time, punctuated by alternating wet and dry periods.
People are also reading… Publication of the bureau's announcement kicks off what's expected to be a prolonged, difficult and contentious effort to develop new guidelines, in which the seven river basin states including the numerous interest groups operating in each state pursue an elusive consensus for future river management.
A new set of agreements, developed in 2019, were aimed at shoring up the management of the reservoirs to adapt to their continued declines. They were approved as separate drought contingency plans for the river's Upper and Lower Basin states. Arizona, Nevada and California comprise the Lower Basin. Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming make up the Upper Basin.
In half of all years since 2000, the river has carried less than 11 million acre feet annually at Lee's Ferry, just downstream of Lake Powell, compared to a 20th century average of around 15 million acre feet, the bureau noted. The river has had less than 8 million acre feet at Lee's Ferry in 13% of those years, said the bureau.
In its notice last Friday, the bureau added,"With increasing temperatures across the basin, predictions of commensurate decreases in reliable supply, and uncertainty in future demands, Reclamation believes that future policies must be tested across a wide range of potential future conditions, including drought sequences that are longer and more severe than those that have been observed."
Without an approach that takes such uncertainties into account, future policies"are likely to be insufficiently robust, adaptable, and successful," the bureau said.
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