The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is considering revising operating guidelines for the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams to make the Colorado River Basin more resilient to climate change and drought.
“The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million Americans. It fuels hydropower resources in eight states, supports agriculture and agricultural communities across the West, and is a crucial resource for 30 Tribal Nations. Failure is not an option,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau said in an April 11 DOI press release on April 11. “Recognizing the severity of the worsening drought, the Biden-Harris administration is bringing every tool and every resource to bear through the President’s Investing in America agenda to protect the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River System now and into the future.”
The Colorado River is approximately 1,400 miles long and originates along the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo. It ends where it empties into the Gulf of California in Mexico. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming depend on the river for water.
The draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) looks at three scenarios: The No Action Alternative, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, describes the continued implementation of existing agreements that control operations of the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams and includes operational changes to both dams.
Action Alternative 2 is similar to the first alternative in how it models operational changes to both Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam, the draft SEIS shows. It includes assumptions for reduced releases from Glen Canyon Dam and assumptions for additional Lower Colorado River Basin reductions that are distributed in the same percentage across all lower basin water users.
The draft SEIS was published in the Federal Register on April 14, starting the 45-day public comment period. Paper copies are available for public review at the Lower Colorado Basin Regional Office in Boulder City, Nev., and at the Upper Colorado Basin Regional Office in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at area offices within the Colorado River Basin.
Written comments should be submitted by May 30. Comments may be submitted via the following methods: Email to: CRinterimops@usbr.gov; Telephone: (602) 609-6739; verbally at the virtual public meetings; Mail to: Reclamation 2007 Interim Guidelines SEIS Project Manager Upper Colorado Basin Region, 1 25 South State Street, Suite 8100 Salt Lake City, Utah 84138.
“Drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin have been two decades in the making. To meet this moment, we must continue to work together, through a commitment to protecting the river, leading with science and a shared understanding that unprecedented conditions require new solutions,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in the release “The draft released today is the product of ongoing engagement with the Basin states and water commissioners, the 30 Basin Tribes, water managers, farmers and irrigators, municipalities and other stakeholders.”
