Colorado River Reservoir Operations: Development of Post-2026 Operational Guidelines and Strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, 72535-72536 [2023-23127]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• Bureau of Reclamation

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 202 (Friday, October 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72535-72536]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-23127]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation

[RR03040000, 23XR0680A1, RX187860005004001]


Colorado River Reservoir Operations: Development of Post-2026 
Operational Guidelines and Strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Department of the Interior (Department) has issued a 
Scoping Summary Report on the Development of Post-2026 Operational 
Guidelines and Strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The Scoping 
Summary Report provides a summary of the comments received during the 
public scoping process and describes the Department's current, 
preliminary assessment of the proposed federal action, purpose and 
need, and scope of the environmental analysis to be included in the 
draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). The Department anticipates 
the DEIS will be published in December 2024 for public review.

ADDRESSES: The Scoping Summary Report is available on the Bureau of 
Reclamation's website at https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/post2026/scoping/. Printed copies of the report are available 
upon request from the point of contact listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amanda Erath, Colorado River Post-2026 
Program Coordinator, Bureau of Reclamation, at (303) 445-2766, or by 
email at [email protected]. Please also visit the project website at 
https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/post2026/. 
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of 
hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals 
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within 
their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in 
the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, and the Council on Environmental 
Quality's Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of 
NEPA, the Department is publishing the Scoping Summary Report as a 
voluntary effort to assist in public understanding of this important 
NEPA process. Based on the information summarized in the report, the 
Department is preparing a DEIS starting with the development of a 
reasonable range of alternatives that are technically and economically 
feasible and meet the purpose and need for the proposed federal action 
(40 CFR part 1508). Considering public input received to date, the 
Department's current, preliminary assessment of the proposed federal 
action, purpose and need, and scope of the environmental analysis to be 
included in the DEIS are described below and in the Scoping Summary 
Report.

Proposed Federal Action

    The Bureau of Reclamation, acting on behalf of the Secretary of the 
Interior (Secretary), proposes to take action to adopt specific 
guidelines and coordinated reservoir management strategies to address 
operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead through their full operating 
range. This action would provide improved predictability to all water 
users and managers in the Colorado River Basin by developing and 
adopting objective guidelines for the operation of Glen Canyon Dam and 
Hoover Dam to take effect when the current operating guidelines (the 
2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and 
Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead [2007 Interim 
Guidelines]) expire in 2026. In addition, this action is designed to 
provide for the sustainable management of the Colorado River system and 
its resources under a wide range of potential future system conditions 
due to a changing climate.
    Based on public input, the Department anticipates the guidelines 
would include the following elements:
    (1) Identification of circumstances under which the Secretary would 
allocate, reduce, or increase the annual amount of water available for 
consumptive use from Lake Mead to the Lower Division states (Arizona, 
California, and Nevada) at, below, or above 7.5 million acre-feet, 
pursuant to the Supreme Court Decree in Arizona v. California.\1\
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    \1\ The Department intends to meet any consultation requirements 
identified in Article II(B)(3) of the Supreme Court Decree in 
Arizona v. California through the ongoing NEPA process initiated by 
the Federal Register Notice of June 16, 2023 (88 FR 39455-39458) and 
the annual implementation of guidelines developed through this 
process.
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    (2) Coordinated operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, 
particularly under low reservoir conditions.
    (3) Storage and delivery of conserved water in Lake Mead and/or 
Lake Powell to increase the flexibility to meet water use needs from 
both reservoirs, including the storage and delivery of non-system 
water; exchanges; and water conserved through extraordinary measures by 
or for tribal, agricultural, or municipal entities.
    The proposed federal action allows for development of robust 
operating guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead without precluding 
upstream or downstream actions needed to protect critical reservoir 
elevations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, such as the following:
     Approaches that consider total system storage in all major 
Colorado River reservoirs and/or actual inflows to determine 
coordinated operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
     Approaches that include opportunities for conservation, 
augmentation, demand management, or other water management strategies.
     Approaches that include opportunities for conservation, 
augmentation, demand management, or other water management strategies.
     Temporary emergency response operations at upstream 
Colorado River reservoirs to protect critical infrastructure at Glen 
Canyon Dam, so long as the project-specific operations of those 
reservoirs remain within their respective Records of Decision.
    The Department intends that the guidelines be interim in nature and 
extend for at least the same duration as the 2007 Interim Guidelines 
(approximately 20 years), subject to further consideration during the 
NEPA process. Adoption of new guidelines for an interim (or limited) 
period provides the opportunity to gain additional experience for 
operating the reservoirs, thereby informing future operational and 
water management decisions.
    Recognizing additional authorities may be developed, it is the 
intent of the Department to adopt and implement the guidelines in a 
manner consistent with the Law of the River.\2\ It is also the

[[Page 72536]]

intent of the Department that the guidelines be used to implement the 
Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River 
Reservoirs Pursuant to the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 
September 30, 1968 (LROC).
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    \2\ The treaties, compacts, decrees, statutes, regulations, 
contracts, and other legal documents and agreements applicable to 
the allocation, appropriation, development, exportation, and 
management of the waters of the Colorado River Basin are often 
referred to as the ``Law of the River.'' There is no single, 
universally-agreed upon definition of the ``Law of the River,'' but 
it is useful as a shorthand reference to describe this longstanding 
and complex body of legal agreements governing the Colorado River.
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Purpose and Need for the Proposed Federal Action

    In accordance with NEPA implementing regulations, a statement of 
purpose and need is required in an EIS to explain why the agency is 
proposing the action. The ``need'' for the action may be described as 
the underlying problem or opportunity to which the agency is responding 
with the action; the ``purpose'' may refer to the goal or objective 
that the agency is trying to achieve (43 CFR 46.420).
    The proposed federal action is needed for the following reasons:
     The Secretary is legally required to coordinate operations 
of Colorado River reservoirs: The Colorado River Basin Project Act of 
1968 directs the Secretary to propose criteria for the coordinated 
long-range operation of Colorado River reservoirs. In compliance with 
this obligation, the LROC were developed and adopted by the Secretary 
in 1970. The LROC provide general narrative guidance regarding Lake 
Powell and Lake Mead operations but does not contain specific, 
objective criteria to guide annual operations. To address this 
inadequacy, the 2007 Interim Guidelines were developed to provide 
objective criteria used by the Department to implement the LROC. These 
guidelines have provided predictability needed by the entities that 
receive Colorado River water to better plan for and manage available 
water supplies from the Colorado River and other sources.
     2007 Interim Guidelines are expiring: Current operational 
guidelines expire during the 2026 operating year. The Department has 
determined that specific, objective operational guidelines are 
important to provide improved predictability and should be established 
for another interim period beyond 2026.
     2007 Interim Guidelines have not sufficiently reduced 
risk: Based on operational experience since 2007, the current 
guidelines are not robust enough to manage in a way that is 
sufficiently protective of the resources dependent on the Colorado 
River. Despite near-continuous drought-response actions in recent 
years, low-reservoir conditions have persisted and new infrastructure 
risks at Glen Canyon Dam have arisen. More robust and adaptive 
guidelines are needed for the efficient and sustainable management of 
the major mainstream Colorado River reservoirs and system resources.
     Imbalance between water supply and demand will be 
exacerbated by increasingly likely low-runoff conditions: Climate 
science indicates the Colorado River Basin is experiencing climate-
change induced aridification and that long-term and sustained drought 
and low-runoff conditions should be expected in the future. These 
conditions will exacerbate the now widely recognized imbalance between 
water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin. Robust and 
flexible guidelines are needed to manage the Colorado River system and 
its resources under a broad range of potential future hydrologic 
conditions.
     Expanded and innovative use of conservation is needed: 
Recognizing the anticipated future low-runoff conditions in the 
Colorado River Basin, the Department has also determined a need for 
guidelines that provide Colorado River water users, including Basin 
Tribes, expanded opportunities to conserve, store, and take subsequent 
delivery of water in and from Lake Mead and/or Lake Powell. The 
guidelines should also support and integrate future efficiency 
improvements and opportunities for augmentation.
     Addressing tribal concerns regarding Colorado River Basin 
management is needed: Basin Tribes have expressed concern that the 
current approach to Colorado River water management is insufficient to 
address the range of interests, needs, and fundamental rights of the 
Basin Tribes. The Department has determined a need for guidelines that 
provide flexibility and predictability for Basin Tribes to remain able 
to benefit from their water rights and have an opportunity to 
participate in voluntary conservation programs.
    The purpose for the proposed federal action is to:
     update and expand management guidelines for Colorado River 
reservoirs, particularly for Lake Powell and Lake Mead;
     provide Colorado River water users, a greater degree of 
predictability with respect to the amount of annual water available in 
future years under anticipated increasing variability, low runoff and 
low reservoir conditions;
     provide additional mechanisms for the conservation, 
storage and delivery of water supplies in Colorado River reservoirs;
     provide new or enhanced opportunities for Basin Tribes to 
benefit from their water rights; and
     provide flexibility to build resilience and accommodate 
future needs and growth that are supported by Colorado River water 
supplies, including the integration of unquantified tribal water rights 
once they are resolved.

DEIS Approach

    The DEIS will consider the best scientific information currently 
available; actual operating experience since 2007; updated information 
on infrastructure considerations at Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam; 
trade-offs between the frequency and magnitude of reductions in water 
deliveries; mechanisms to encourage water conservation, efficiency 
improvements, and augmentation; and the effect of water storage in Lake 
Powell and Lake Mead on water supply, power production, recreation, 
environmental resources, cultural resources, and other relevant 
resources and factors.
    The geographic scope of the environmental analysis in the DEIS is 
dependent upon the range of alternatives developed in the DEIS and 
therefore will be determined later in the NEPA process.

Next Steps

    With this Notice, the Department is transitioning to the next phase 
of the NEPA process, which is to develop alternatives for analysis in 
the DEIS. Reclamation has developed state-of-the-art web-based tools to 
encourage and facilitate stakeholder collaboration during this phase 
and intends to deploy these tools in the early stages of this phase in 
the fall. It is the Department's intent that these tools support the 
exploration and development of a broad range of reasonable alternatives 
and foster collaborative consensus-based approaches to alternative 
development.

Maria Camille Touton,
Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation.
[FR Doc. 2023-23127 Filed 10-19-23; 8:45 am]
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