[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 6, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2244-2245]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-01340]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation

[LC RR03040000, 19XR0680A1, RX.18786000.5009000; UC RR04090000, 
19XR0680A1, RX.19830001.0010000]


Responding to Historic Drought and Ongoing Dry Conditions in the 
Colorado River Basin: Request for Input

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for input.

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SUMMARY: Consistent with past practice, through this Notice, the 
Department of the Interior (Department) is taking the initial step of 
requesting input from the Governors of each of the seven Colorado River 
Basin States (Basin States) for their specific recommendations on 
prompt Departmental actions that would be appropriate to take to reduce 
the risks the Colorado River Basin is facing, and can be adopted prior 
to the August 2019 determinations of operations for Lake Powell and 
Lake Mead in 2020.

DATES: Input will be accepted beginning March 4, 2019, for a 15-day 
period ending March 19, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Send input pursuant to this notice by email to 
[email protected], or via facsimile to (202) 513-0308. More 
information regarding the DCPs is available on the Bureau of 
Reclamation's website at https://www.usbr.gov/dcp/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this Notice, contact James Hess by email at [email protected], or by 
telephone at (202) 513-0543.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Colorado River is the most important 
water resource in the southwestern United States and northwestern 
Mexico--irrigating nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland and serving 
approximately 40 million people in major metropolitan areas such as 
Albuquerque, Cheyenne, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt 
Lake City, San Diego, Tucson, and Tijuana. The waters of the Colorado 
River are shared among seven states within the United States: Arizona, 
California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The 
Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to applicable provisions of federal 
law including, in particular, the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 
(authorizing, among other actions, construction and operation of Hoover 
Dam and Lake Mead) and the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956 
(authorizing, among other actions, construction and operation of Glen 
Canyon Dam and Lake Powell), is vested with the responsibility to 
manage the waters of the Colorado River through operations of federal 
facilities in the Colorado River Basin. Under applicable federal law, 
the Secretary of the Interior's authorities to manage the waters of the 
Lower Colorado River Basin are broader than his authorities in the 
Upper Basin, but the importance of federal facilities in the management 
of the Colorado River extends throughout the Basin.
    Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has experienced historic 
drought and dry conditions; the combined storage in Lakes Powell and 
Mead has reached its lowest level since Lake Powell initially began 
filling in the 1960s.
    In recent decades, recognizing the limited resources of the 
Colorado River, the Department of the Interior has undertaken numerous 
actions to manage the waters of the Colorado River including, in 
particular, development of the 2001 Interim Surplus Guidelines (see 66 
FR 7772 dated January 25, 2001) and development of the 2007 Colorado 
River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated 
Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (see 73 FR 19873 dated April 
11, 2008) (2007 Interim Guidelines).
    The 2007 Interim Guidelines represent important additional 
operational guidelines and tools that were adopted to meet the 
challenges of the drought in the Colorado River Basin. As the 
Department noted at the time: ``While water storage in the massive 
reservoirs afforded great protection against the drought, the 
Department set a goal to have detailed, objective operational tools in 
place by the end of 2007 in order to be ready to make informed 
operational decisions if the reservoirs continued to decline,'' 73 FR 
19873. Implementation of the 2007 Interim Guidelines required 
consultation with the Basin States in multiple provisions, expressly 
providing that: ``Beginning no later than December 31, 2020, the 
Secretary shall initiate a formal review for purposes of evaluating the 
effectiveness of these Guidelines. The Secretary shall consult with the 
Basin States in initiating this review,'' 73 FR 19892 (April 11, 2008).
    Since adoption of the 2007 Interim Guidelines, given the 
persistence and intensity of the current drought, the risk of reaching 
critically low elevations at Lakes Powell and Mead has increased nearly 
four-fold. In response to these conditions of continued drought and 
increasing risk, Reclamation and officials in the Basin States have 
been

[[Page 2245]]

working for a period of years on DCPs. The Upper and Lower Basin DCPs 
contain actions in addition to those authorized or required by the 2007 
Interim Guidelines, and are designed to reduce the risk of Lake Powell 
and Lake Mead declining to critical elevations.\1\ The Basin States 
made significant progress in 2018 on draft DCP agreements that would 
implement Upper and Lower Basin DCPs,\2\ but work on the DCPs remains 
unfinished, particularly among the Lower Colorado River Basin states of 
Arizona, California and Nevada. While unfinished, the Department takes 
particular cognizance of the fact that on January 31, 2019, the Arizona 
Legislature passed legislation authorizing the Arizona Department of 
Water Resources Director to execute the relevant interstate DCP 
agreements. Arizona is unique in the need for state legislative action 
to approve the DCPs, and this important step may indicate that 
finalization of the DCPs is imminent.
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    \1\ Completion of the DCPs, and associated reduction in risk of 
Lakes Powell and Mead declining to critically low elevations, will 
also benefit the activities, analyses and interstate discussions 
associated with the formal review and evaluation of the 
effectiveness of the 2007 Interim Guidelines. Under the applicable 
provisions of the 2007 Interim Guidelines the Secretary shall 
consult with the Basin States in initiating this review beginning no 
later than December 31, 2020.
    \2\ Draft versions of the DCPs and information on the Upper and 
Lower Basin DCPs are available on the Bureau of Reclamation's 
website at: https://www.usbr.gov/dcp/.
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    While the Department supports the ongoing efforts of the Basin 
States and remains cautiously optimistic that the Basin States will 
successfully complete their efforts promptly in early 2019, the 
Department is highly concerned that continued delays regarding adoption 
of the DCPs inappropriately increases risk for all that rely on the 
waters of the Colorado River.
    In the circumstance that the DCPs cannot be promptly completed in 
early 2019, the Department must be prepared to take actions--if 
needed--to respond to the increasing risks facing the Colorado River 
Basin.
    Engagement with the Governors of the Basin States and appropriate 
consultation with such state representatives as each Governor may 
designate is appropriate given the Secretary's recognition of ``the 
special role of the Basin States in matters relating to the Long-Range 
Operating Criteria,'' 64 FR 27009 (May 18, 1999), as codified in 
Section 602 of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968. The 
Department's history and actions in recent decades fully reflect and 
underscore the importance of working closely with the Basin States in 
developing operational tools for management of the Colorado River. For 
example, the Secretary of the Interior noted at the time of the 
adoption of the 2007 Interim Guidelines: ``In recent years, in a number 
of settings, and facing a broad range of water management challenges, 
the Department has highlighted the important role of the Basin States 
in the statutory framework for administration of Basin entitlements and 
the significance that a seven-state consensus represents. Multi-state 
consensus is a rare and unique achievement that should continue to be 
recognized and facilitated,'' 73 FR 19878 (April 11, 2008). The 
Department fully endorses this Secretarial statement of policy as this 
approach continues to represent the best manner to address future 
controversies on the Colorado River through consultation and 
negotiation. Simply put, this approach minimizes the likelihood that 
controversies will increase and intensify as water supplies diminish.
    Through this Notice, and at this time, the Department is seeking 
input from the Governors' representatives of the Basin States. The 
Department will ensure that the information received from the 
Governors' representatives is promptly shared with tribes, interested 
parties and the general public for their review. In the event that the 
Department proposes to take further action following receipt of such 
input, the Department will also provide an opportunity for further 
input from tribes, interested parties and the general public.
    Across Administrations, the Department has invested extraordinary 
time, effort and resources to facilitate development of the DCPs. While 
adoption of consensus-based DCPs in early 2019 would appropriately and 
promptly reduce the risk facing the Colorado River Basin, the Basin 
States may not complete the actions necessary to put the DCPs into 
effect this year. Accordingly, the Department must be prepared to act 
without undue delay to reduce the risk of continued declines in the 
critical water supplies of the Colorado River Basin in the unfortunate 
event that the Basin States are unable to complete their work on the 
DCPs.
    In conclusion, the Colorado River Basin has experienced 
historically dry conditions since 2000 and the combined storage in 
Lakes Powell and Mead has reached its lowest level since Lake Powell 
initially began filling in the 1960s. Given the persistence and 
intensity of the current drought, the risk of reaching critically low 
elevations at Lakes Powell and Mead has increased nearly four-fold over 
the past decade. The Department, recognizing this increased risk, 
called on the Basin States to put DCPs in place before the end of 2018. 
Each of the Governors' representatives of the Basin States endorsed the 
goal of completion of the DCPs by the end of 2018.\3\
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    \3\ See statement of Commissioner of Reclamation and 
representatives of the Seven Colorado River Basin States at https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=62170.
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    The DCPs remain unfinished at this time, and given the current 
unfinished status of the DCPs, combined with declining reservoir 
storage in the Basin, the Department is considering potential federal 
actions to revise Colorado River operations in an effort to enhance and 
ensure sustainability of Colorado River water supplies for the 
southwestern United States. This Notice requests input from the 
Governors of the Basin States (and appropriate consultation with such 
state representatives as each Governor may designate) regarding 
recommendations for potential Departmental actions in the event that 
the DCPs cannot be completed and promptly adopted that: (a) Would be 
appropriate to take to reduce the risks the Colorado River Basin is 
facing, and (b) can be adopted prior to the August 2019 determinations 
of operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead in 2020.

    Dated: February 1, 2019.
Timothy R. Petty,
Assistant Secretary--Water & Science, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Brenda W. Burman,
Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior.
[FR Doc. 2019-01340 Filed 2-5-19; 8:45 am]
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