After facing dangerously dwindling water supplies in the Colorado River Basin, federal officials say that the worst has been staved off—at least for now.
The Colorado River Basin provides water to 40 million people in seven states, including New Mexico. New Mexico’s share of the Colorado River comes from the San Juan and Animas rivers in San Juan County. A portion of that water is diverted through a series of dams and tunnels to the Rio Grande Basin.
Upper basin states like New Mexico are required to deliver a certain amount of water to the lower basin states. This is measured at Lake Powell gauge. Lake Powell was created when the Glen Canyon Dam was constructed.
As the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the release of a final supplemental environmental impact statement for near-term operations of the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams on Tuesday, officials who spoke during a press conference reflected on the progress that has been made, spoke about current conditions and outlined future actions.
“With this significant milestone, we can confidently declare that the Biden-Harris administration has staved off the immediate possibility of the Colorado River systems reservoirs from falling to critically low elevation that would threaten water delivery and power production,” U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said.
Interior Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis described the release of the final supplemental environmental impact statement as a big deal, not just for people in the Department of the Interior who have been “working day in and day out to bring the Colorado River Basin back from the brink of disaster,” but also for the communities that rely on the river.
Looking forward, Daniel-Davis said a process is underway to develop the “next iteration of guidelines and strategies governing the Colorado River.” Those guidelines will go into effect in 2027.
“We are committed to pursuing a collaborative consensus-based approach to ensure that any action from the department is done with as much consensus as possible,” she said.
At the same time, she acknowledged the friction between states, especially between upper and lower basin states.
“I want to be clear, we are not expecting every single issue to be smoothed out between the upper and lower basins tomorrow,” Daniel-Davis said.
But, she said, everyone is after the same thing: a basin-wide solution.
She said that the Department of the Interior will begin drafting the environmental impact statement for the post-2026 guidelines this month.
Touton described the ongoing drought in the western United States as one of the most significant issues facing the country. This drought is caused by climate change and has also been referred to as aridification. The aridification resulted in what Touton described as critically-low reservoir levels in the Colorado Basin, which have put strains on people and businesses.
“Over the last few years, we have seen how these climate impacts are changing the very landscape of the Colorado River,” Touton said.
She said that after visiting the Hoover Dam in 2022 she appeared before the U.S. Congress to call for immediate efforts to conserve water.
Back then, Touton threatened the Colorado River Basin states with federal action should they fail to prepare plans to curb water usage.
Today, reservoir levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell are higher than they were in 2022 when officials were concerned dropping water levels would imperil the infrastructure and prevent the generation of electricity.
Many of the steps taken to reduce the dropping levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell primarily impacted the lower basin states and many of the steps outlined in the final supplemental environmental impact statement—which totals more than 1,000 pages—are also focused on the lower basin. For example, the Department of the Interior also announced agreements with three water entities in California to conserve nearly 400,000 acre-feet of water.
The supplemental environmental impact statement will result in at least 3 million acre-feet of conservation through 2026.
Touton said the supplemental environmental impact statement released Tuesday “has given us some breathing room to focus on the long term.”
But climate change will continue to create challenges along the Colorado River Basin.
Touton said the west has seen good precipitation both in the form of rain and snow, with precipitation during this water year currently at 97 percent of average and snowpack at 99 percent of average. The water year began on Oct. 1.
Compared to last year, Touton said the water levels in Lake Powell are 44 feet higher and, in Lake Mead, water levels are 29 feet higher.
“However, we’re still dealing with low reservoir conditions,” she said. “Lake Powell is 34 percent full and Lake Mead 37 percent full.”
The federal government is now looking at ways to manage the water in the Colorado River Basin going forward and will begin preparing a plan for post-2026 management this year.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain said that as the federal agencies look toward 2026 and beyond, they are also “laser-focused” on drought mitigation efforts in other river basins, including the Rio Grande.
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