The Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday threw its weight behind a plan by Arizona, Nevada and California to preserve at least 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water through 2026.
Reclamation identified the plan as its "preferred alternative" to current interim operating guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams in a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. In the document, the agency said the agreement, the result of hard-fought negotiations between the three lower basin states, would be more effective at staving off the threat of two primary Colorado River reservoirs falling to "critical elevations" over the next three years than current guidelines.
Under the plan, Lake Powell has only an 8% chance of dropping low enough to threaten water deliveries and power production, while Lake Mead has only a 4% chance, according to a press release.
"Reclamation is grateful to our partners across the Basin – including the Basin states Governor’s Representatives, the 30 Basin Tribes, water managers, farmers and irrigators, municipalities, power contractors, non-governmental organizations, and other partners and stakeholders – for their unprecedented level of collaboration throughout this process,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a release.
“As we move forward, supported by historic investments from the President’s Investing in America agenda, we will continue working collaboratively to ensure we have long-term tools and strategies in place to help guide the next era of the Colorado River Basin.”
The assessment was a revised version of a draft supplemental environmental impact statement the agency published last March amid state gridlock in discussions over Colorado River cuts, which proposed two sharply different options: prioritize reductions based on water rights seniority or distribute cuts evenly across all Lower Basin water users. The agency withdrew that SEIS after the three Lower Basin states jointly proposed a conservation plan.
Under the Lower Basin states' plan, water users would be compensated for up to 2.3 million acre-feet of reductions with Inflation Reduction Act funding. The remaining 700,000 acre feet or more of water included in the plan would either go uncompensated or be paid for using state or local funds.
Wayne Pullan, Reclamation's regional director for the Upper Colorado Basin Region, told farmers and irrigators at the Family Farm Alliance's annual conference last month that the final SEIS "will give us the tools that we need should things turn extremely dry between now and the end of 2026." Negotiators from all seven Colorado River states will need to iron out a completely new set of guidelines for 2027 and after.
The agency also announced three new agreements that would pay irrigation districts in California with Inflation Reduction Act funding to conserve 399,153 acre-feet of water through 2026.
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The Palo Verde Irrigation District, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Palo Verde Irrigation District, are receiving $140 million to conserve 351,063 acre-feet of water through 2026, according to a list of program recipients. That breaks down to $400 per acre-foot of water conserved.
Reclamation also announced an agreement with the Coachella Valley Water district to conserve up to 30,000 acre-feet of water through 2026 and with the Bard Water District. An agreement with the Bard Water District, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Water District, would also commit up to 18,090 acre-feet through 2026.
The amount of funding being provided for both the Coachella Valley and Bard Water District agreements are unclear, as they are not yet listed on the recipient sheet.
The agency has signed 24 conservation agreements with water users in Arizona and California that it believes will conserve up to 1.58 million acre-feet of water through 2026, according to the press release. The agency expects to provide up to $670.2 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding for these agreements.
Reclamation and the International Boundary Water Commission are working on a "complementary effort" with Mexico to conserve additional water through 2026, according to the release.
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