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Water Woes XXXVI - Low Snow & Colorado River Operations Alternatives

Writer's picture: Mark L. JohnsonMark L. Johnson


Very Little Snow-San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Approaching Continental Divide-Photo by Jim Quigley (1/27/25)
Very Little Snow-San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Approaching Continental Divide-Photo by Jim Quigley (1/27/25)

Low Snow Upper Colorado River Watershed


Tortolita Alliance (TA) member Jim Quigley reports from Colorado that there is very little snow in the Upper Colorado River Watershed. See lead photo from the San Juan Mountains approaching the Continental Divide. The western slope streams/rivers of the San Juan Mountains flow to the Colorado River.


The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (National Weather Service) comports with the low snow observation and is projecting 76% normal runoff into Lake Powell this Spring/Summer. See map/chart below.


CRBFC-1/16/25
CRBFC-1/16/25

Post 2026 Operational Guidelines and Strategies For Lake Powell And Lake Mead-Alternatives Report


The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) initiated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) evaluation of potential alternatives to operate the Colorado River System post-2026 in mid-2023.


TA reported on 11/25/24 that USBR had developed 5 alternative strategies. See  Water Woes XXIV-Colorado River System Beyond 2026. The Upper and Lower Basin States, Tribes and Environmental Groups have reviewed these five alternative strategies and submitted their own suggested strategies. USBR has now taken all this input and developed the following five final strategies that will be evaluated as part of the NEPA process:


  • No Action

  • Federal Authorities

  • Federal Authorities Hybrid

  • Cooperative Conservation

  • Basin Hybrid


The proposed strategies are complex. The basic difference between the five alternatives is the shortage guideline methodology, i.e. shortage trigger, shortage start and maximum operational storage. See Figure 11 from the Alternatives Report.



We will see where all this ends up but TA still recommends the simple solution to cut all Colorado River water supply contracts by 20% and get water consumption in line with actual water availability and avoid the shortage wizardry. See Colorado River System-Cut 20.


It is interesting to note that at the very end of the Alternatives Report is a section entitled Special Considerations Regarding Use of Pro Rata Shortage Distributions in Alternatives. In short, it appears that USBR is intending to analyze pro rata cuts to water supply contracts to provide more input into the alternative analysis. Not exactly 20% across the board cuts but at least they are looking at simple and perhaps more aggressive solutions to augment the complicated strategies.


If you are interested in reading the Alternatives Report, you can download at the following link:





© 2024 by the Tortolita Alliance

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