LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The federal company charged with managing the Colorado River didn’t do its job correctly when it excluded a viable choice offered by Nevada, Arizona and California, based on paperwork that surfaced Friday.
The three states that make up the Decrease Basin are preventing a important struggle for his or her rights to water from the river. The way forward for rising cities is within the steadiness, together with farms, companies and everybody else within the desert Southwest.
On Friday, a Feb. 13 letter to incoming Inside Secretary Doug Burgum was obtained by 8 Information Now, together with a supporting doc that argues the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is making a giant mistake by refusing to handle a recognized downside with Glen Canyon Dam, which creates the nation’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Powell.
The dam is unable to launch sufficient water to fulfill downriver commitments as soon as Lake Powell drops under 3,490 toes elevation. And not one of the 5 alternate options underneath energetic examine by Reclamation straight addresses that downside, Decrease Basin leaders say. The choice that they proposed was eradicated in Reclamation’s Jan. 18 determination that marked the company’s handoff from the Biden administration to President Donald Trump’s group. The Decrease Basin needs Reclamation’s 54-page memo retracted.
The Nice Basin Water Community, a conservation effort headed by Kyle Roerink in Nevada, launched the paperwork.
Kyle Roerink of the Nice Basin Water Community talks about his greatest considerations for the Colorado River. (KLAS)
“We applaud the fortitude and willingness of Lower Basin leadership to stand up for issues that could have immense impact on the 25 million residents of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, agricultural communities, and ecosystems,” Roerink informed 8 Information Now.
“Lower Basin water managers highlighting the River Outlet Works issue at Glen Canyon Dam is unprecedented and couldn’t have come at a better time. With such small snowpacks looming large, we need to get serious about what smaller river flows will do to our ways of life. We hope the Trump Administration heeds the calls of the officials on the letter. It is a golden opportunity to do what no other administration has been willing to do,” Roerink stated.
The letter is signed by John Entsminger, basic supervisor of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, in addition to the chief water managers in Arizona and California. They signed the letter as “governor’s representative” of every state.
“Of particular concern is the report’s complete omission of compliance with the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the foundation of the Law of the River,” the letter states.
“Additionally, the prior administration’s approach to protecting the Lake Powell outlet works by reducing releases from Lake Powell — rather than making infrastructure repairs and improvements — is shortsighted and harms the Lower Basin States by slashing the water available to our farmers, communities, and economies. These profound impacts can be avoided by some combination of straight forward engineering fixes, moving water to Lake Powell from upstream reservoirs when necessary, and temporary reductions in Upper Basin use,” based on the letter.
As of Friday, snowpack ranges within the Higher Colorado River Basin had been at 92% of regular. Snowpack usually peaks within the first week of April. Ranges can fluctuate as a consequence of heat temperatures and precipitation. The previous 5 days have been among the many greatest for situations in Higher Basin, with snowpack rising from 85% of regular since Monday. The U.S. Division of Agriculture measures the snow water equal (SWE) at 130 SNOTEL monitoring stations within the Higher Basin, with each day updates.
Snow water equal (SWE) statistics from the Higher Colorado River Basin up to date on Friday, March 7, 2025, present the basin total (vivid blue field at heart) at 92% of regular.
Entsminger and his Decrease Basin colleagues requested to fulfill with Burgum to transient him on the scenario. In an attachment to their letter, they criticized Reclamation for failing to adequately meet the necessities of the NEPA (Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act) course of.
Reclamation did not disclose the way it interprets the Colorado River Compact of 1922, often called the Legislation of the River. With out that data, states and water managers throughout the Southwest are left to guess what the federal authorities will do if Lake Powell drops dramatically once more.
Each Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropped to about 25% capability in 2021. Lake Powell is presently at 34% and Lake Mead is at 35%.
Conservation teams recognized the issue at Glen Canyon Dam in August 2022, revealing that the 4 pipes that make up the River Outlet Works could not carry sufficient water to fulfill necessities of the Legislation of the River. These are the one pipes obtainable when Lake Powell drops under 3,490 toes. It’s presently at 3,562 toes.
April 24, 2023 – Glen Canyon Dam Excessive-Move Launch (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation)
When snowpack grew to 160% of regular in 2023, Reclamation launched an unlimited quantity of water in a “high-flow experiment” launch by way of Glen Canyon Dam’s River Outlet Works. In April 2024, Reclamation stated an inspection discovered harm contained in the pipes, one more downside that Reclamation has on the dam. The high-flow experiment releases have not been repeated since 2023.
Glen Canyon Dam has been a frequent goal regardless of a thriving recreation business at Lake Powell. Reclamation has staunchly defended significance or the infrastructure that produces energy there for the encircling area.
Decrease Basin leaders known as on Burgum to direct Reclamation to “retract its previously released Alternatives Report and meet with representatives of the Lower Basin States to discuss the technical and legal deficiencies” in that report.
They conclude: “The Lower Basin States have demonstrated here that Reclamation’s range of alternatives in the ongoing NEPA process is improperly constrained by Reclamation’s required assumption to protect elevation 3,490 ft in Lake Powell for every action alternative included for detailed consideration to date. Reclamation’s own admissions show that options to protect Glen Canyon Dam infrastructure other than a hard-protect elevation of 3,490 ft for Lake Powell may exist but are impermissibly under consideration outside the NEPA process. Reclamation’s unsupported assumption to protect Glen Canyon Dam infrastructure in only one way impermissibly elevates a narrow, artificially constrained infrastructure protection priority over the congressional purposes for project operation and the requirements of the Compact and 1944 Treaty with Mexico to supply water. Reclamation’s failure to identify and consider options for the Glen Canyon Dam infrastructure situation in its DEIS will — if not corrected — render the resulting Final EIS and Record of Decision invalid.”
