CRS Report: 'Management of the Colorado River - Water Allocations, Drought, and the Federal Role' Updated: 16 August 2021

Charles V. Stern and Pervaze A. Sheikh have updated (16 August 2021) their excellent CRS report: 'Management of the Colorado River: Water Allocations, Drought, and the Federal Role'.

The graphics are not placed where they occur in the report. Click on a graphic to enlarge it. Click here for an updated map of the basin.

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Overview
The Colorado River Basin covers more than 246,000 square miles in seven U.S. states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California) and Mexico. Pursuant to federal law, the Bureau of Reclamation (part of the Department of the Interior) manages much of the basin’s water supplies. Colorado River water is used primarily for agricultural irrigation and municipal and industrial (M&I) uses; it is also important for hydropower production, fish and wildlife, and recreational uses.

Apportioned Colorado River water is widely acknowledged to be in excess of the river’s natural flows, and consumptive use of these waters typically exceeds natural flows. This causes an imbalance in the basin’s available water supply and demand. Stress on basin water supplies is exacerbated by a long-term drought dating to 2000. In the future, observers expect ongoing strain on the basin’s limited water supplies, which will be further stressed by climate change.

River Management
The Law of the River is the commonly used shorthand for the multiple laws, court decisions, and other documents governing Colorado River operations; its foundational document is the Colorado River Compact of 1922. Pursuant to the compact, the basin states established a framework to apportion water supplies between the river’s Upper and Lower Basins, with the dividing line between the two basins at Lee Ferry, AZ. Each basin was allocated 7.5 million acre-feet (MAF) annually under the compact, and an additional 1.5 MAF in annual flows was made available to Mexico under a 1944 treaty. Further agreements and court decisions addressed other issues (e.g., intrastate allocations of flows), and subsequent federal legislation provided authority and funding for federal facilities that allowed users to develop their allocations. A 1963 Supreme Court ruling confirmed that Congress designated the Secretary of the Interior as the water master for the Lower Basin, a role in which the federal government manages the delivery of all water below Hoover Dam.

Reclamation and basin stakeholders closely track the status of two large reservoirs—Lake Powell in the Upper Basin and Lake Mead in the Lower Basin—as an indicator of basin storage conditions. Under criteria agreed upon by basin states, dam releases from these facilities are tied to specific water storage levels. On August 16, 2021, Reclamation declared the first-ever Tier One shortage condition in the Lower Basin beginning in 2022, which reduces deliveries to water contractors in Arizona and Nevada, as well as to Mexico. Reclamation also projected a high likelihood of Lake Powell’s 2022 surface water elevation falling below target levels established to protect hydropower infrastructure at Glen Canyon Dam.

Operational Changes and Drought Contingency Plans
The federal government has led multiple efforts attempting to improve the basin’s water supply outlook, resulting in previous collaborative agreements in 2003 and 2007. After several years of negotiations, in 2019 Reclamation and the basin states agreed on a new set of plans to alleviate the strain on basin water supplies. Congress authorized these drought contingency plans (DCPs) for the Upper and Lower Basins in 2019 in the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act (P.L. 116-14). Among other things, the DCPs required reductions beyond previous curtailment plans based on Lake Mead storage levels, committed Reclamation to additional water conservation efforts, and put in place plans to coordinate Upper Basin operations to enhance Lake Powell storage levels and hydropower generation. Although the DCPs were widely lauded for their consensus-based development, many remain concerned about the basin’s long-term water supply imbalance and the related potential for a compact call (a “call” on water rights between the Lower and Upper Basins). A central question facing decisionmakers is whether to renew interim agreements (including the DCPs) prior to their expiration in 2026, along with what (if any) additional changes might be necessary to prevent future shortages.

Congressional Role
Congress plays a multifaceted role in federal management of the Colorado River Basin. Congress funds and oversees management of basin facilities and has held oversight hearings on drought in the basin and elsewhere. Congress also has enacted legislation involving allocation of Colorado River waters (e.g., authorization of Indian water rights settlements; new water storage facilities) and authorities to mitigate water shortages (i.e., the DCPs and other related efforts). In the future, Congress may be asked to amend or extend these authorities to combat long-term water shortages.

Cutting to the chase...

Issues for Congress

Funding and Oversight of Existing Facilities and Programs
The principal role of Congress as it relates to storage facilities on the Colorado River is funding and oversight of facility operations, construction, and programs to protect and restore endangered species (e.g., Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program and the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Program). In the Upper Basin, Colorado River facilities include the 17 active participating units in the Colorado River Storage Projects, as well as the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. In the Lower Basin, major facilities include the Salt River Project and Theodore Roosevelt Dam, Hoover Dam and All-American Canal, Yuma and Gila Projects, Parker-Davis Project, Central Arizona Project, and Robert B. Griffith Project (now Southern Nevada Water System).

Congressional appropriations in support of Colorado River projects and programs typically account for a portion of overall project budgets. For example, for the most recent year available (FY2018), the Lower Colorado Region’s operating budget was $559.5 million; $134.8 million of this total was provided by discretionary appropriations, and the remainder of funding came from power revenues (which are made available without further appropriation) and nonfederal partners. In recent years, Congress has also authorized and appropriated funding that hastargeted the Colorado River Basin in general (e.g., the Pilot System Conservation Plan). Congress may choose to extend or amend these and other authorities specific to the basin.

While discretionary appropriations for the Colorado River are of regular interest to Congress, Congress may also be asked to weigh in on Colorado River funding that is not subject to regular appropriations. For instance, in the coming years, the Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund is projected to face a decrease in revenues and may thus have less funding available for congressionally established funding priorities for the Development Fund.

Indian Water Rights Settlements
Congress has previously approved Indian water rights settlements associated with more than 2 MAF of tribal diversion rights on the Colorado River. Only a portion of this water has been developed. Congress likely will face ongoing decisions regarding whether to fund development of previously authorized infrastructure associated with Indian water rights settlements in the Colorado River Basin. For example, the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is being built to serve the Jicarilla Apache Nation, the Navajo Nation, and the City of Gallup, New Mexico.105 Congress may also be asked to consider new settlements that may result in tribal rights to more Colorado River water.

Plans for New and Augmented Water Storage, Conveyance
Some states in the Upper Basin have indicated their intent to further develop their Colorado River water entitlements. For example, in the 115th Congress, Section 4310 of America’s Water Infrastructure Act (P.L. 115-270) authorized the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement with the State of Wyoming whereby the state would fund a project to add erosion control to Fontenelle Reservoir in the Upper Basin. The project would allow the state to potentially utilize an additional 80,000 acre-feet of water storage on the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River.

Another project that would develop Upper Basin waters is the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP), which would direct approximately 86,000 acre-feet of Utah’s Upper Basin Colorado River Basin apportionment from Lake Powell to Washington County, UT (i.e., the St. George, UT, area, which is technically located within the Lower Basin drainage area). The pipeline would begin near Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona and would run through Arizona and Utah to Sand Hollow Reservoir near St. George, UT. Reclamation has been designated the lead agency for the project under NEPA and is coordinating an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the most recently proposed version of the project. Supporters in Utah argue that the pipeline is needed to provide a second primary water source for the St. George area, in addition to the Virgin River. Some environmental groups have argued that the proposed development and diversion of additional Upper Basin waters is ill-advised in light of climate change and the basin’s issues with over-allocation. These groups have argued for major changes to the scope of the EIS. The six other Colorado River Basin states have raised concerns related to the proposed LPP’s “legal and operational issues,” and they have raised concerns with the LPP NEPA process as the de facto forum for resolving a conflict among basin states. The six states have requested that Reclamation refrain from issuing a final EIS until these issues can be resolved on a consensus basis.

Drought Contingency Plan Implementation and Future Basin AgreementsCongress is likely to remain interested in the status of drought in the basin in general, as well as in the implementation of the DCPs and other related agreements and their success or failure at stemming further delivery curtailments and adding water to the basin’s storage reservoirs. Similarly, Congress may be interested in the overall hydrologic status of the Colorado River Basin, including new and existing efforts to plan for increased demand in the basin and stretch limited basin water supplies.

Federally led efforts to extend the 2007 Interim Guidelines (including the DCPs), which expire at the end of 2026, look to be the next major hurdle in the consensus-based management of the Colorado River. These reconsultation efforts, including any major alterations to the existing agreements, are key to managing the basin’s future water resources. Insofar as these agreements involve new federal authorities, Congress may be asked to play a part in their approval.

Enjoy!

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." - Dorothy Parker (quoted in @CountryLiving via @TheWeek)

Comments

[John]

Flaming George has been full since completion, and Lake Mead is empty. Can this mean anything other than lake Mead has been overtaxed?

[EJ Hanford]

"consumptive use and losses in the basin have grown since the compact was approved (i.e., 1922) and have regularly exceeded natural flows"

Attests to the fact that the "management" of the Colorado River over the course of a century leaves much to be desired.