Feds release long-awaited new plan for Lake Powell, Lake Mead

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah and other Upper Colorado Basin states may voluntarily cut up to 200,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water under a new 10-year deal to handle how to allocate the river's water.

That's according to the final draft of the Bureau of Reclamation's long-awaited post-2026 plan for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, released on Friday.

The main framework relies on "sideboards," essentially allowing the federal government to adjust Lake Powell and Lake Mead operations depending on the conditions every year through 2036. Under this, annual releases from Lake Powell, at the Utah-Arizona border, are to be between 5 million and 12 million acre-feet.

The Lower Basin's usage could be cut by as much as 3 million acre-feet, but states can store between 3 million acre-feet and 8 million acre-feet of conserved water within both Lake Powell and Lake Mead for future use. The Upper Basin's voluntary cuts are subject to hydrology, the agency noted.

Operating guidelines may be adjusted every other year. The new plan will replace an agreement that has been in place since 2007, but states have struggled to reach a full allocation because of poor hydrologic conditions.

Between 2020 and 2024, the Lower Basin used 6.5 million acre-feet of its water annually, nearly half of the 13.1 million acre-feet production. The Upper Basin's 3.8 million acre-feet accounted for another 29%, while the rest either made it to Mexico or was lost to evaporation.

"This framework provides the flexibility to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the basin states to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.

The Colorado River accounts for a little more than a quarter of Utah's water supply, but approximately one-third of the state's drinking water also comes from it, according to the Utah Division of Water Resources. It estimates 60% of the state benefits from it altogether.

However, the federal government's decision was handed down months after Utah and the six other Colorado River Basin states failed to agree on how to divvy up the river's water by the final deadline for a new water management plan.

Lower Basin states like Arizona, California and Nevada argued that Utah and the other Upper Basin states weren't doing enough to conserve water, while the Upper Basin states argued that it deals with more instability year after year because of diminishing snowpacks during the long-standing "megadrought."

This year, for instance, produced the worst natural inflows Lake Powell has ever received since it was established, forcing an emergency release of as much as 1 million acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge over the year to help stabilize Lake Powell.

When poor snowpack happens, water rights holders aren't able to get their full share, in terms of water volume.

Utah's Colorado River officials are slated to discuss the impact of the federal plan Friday afternoon.

But the plan may also be temporary, as the seven basin states aren't done negotiating a potential agreement over the river's vital water, said JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California. In a statement, he called Friday's decision an "important milestone," but also "not the finish line."

He added that the Lower Basin states remain "actively engaged" in carrying out their proposal to conserve 3.2 million acre-feet through 2028.

"The proposal responds to a fundamental reality: The Colorado River no longer reliably produces enough water to support all the uses and expectations built around it," he said. "That challenge is shared across the Basin, and addressing it requires specific, measurable reductions in water use by every state."

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