The U.S. Department of Interior granted $125 million to assist with water conservation in the Colorado River.
The money will fund the System Conservation Pilot Program, which is “a 4-year pilot program designed to explore potential solutions and to address declining water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell due to long-term drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin,” according to the Upper Colorado River Commission’s website.
The pilot program is part of the Colorado River Basin Conservation Act, which allows the Department of Interior to fund or participate in projects aimed to increase the amount of water that flows into Lake Mead and the Colorado River Storage Project reservoirs. The act supplies funding through fiscal year 2026.
Last year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation tasked the Colorado River states with reducing water use by 2-4 million acre-feet by Aug. 2023. If the states were unable to agree to a plan, the Bureau would implement mandatory cuts.
The Upper Colorado River Commission developed a five-point plan to meet the reduction requirements despite the shrinking supply of the Colorado River and previous drought response actions which have depleted the upstream storage by 661,000 acre-feet, the commission stated in a letter to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton.
“Our water users already suffer chronic shortages under current conditions resulting in uncompensated priority administration, which includes cuts to numerous present perfected rights in each of our states,” the letter states.
The five-point plan asked for funding to restart the System Conservation Pilot Program. It also agreed to develop a 2023 Drought Response Operations Plan with finalization expected in April, to increase and improve water management tools and continue strict water management and administration of the available annual water supply, according to the letter to Touton.
“To combat the drought crisis on the Colorado River, we all need to work together. Empowering voluntary conservation is a critical part of managing our diminished water supplies,” said Senator John Hickenlooper, who sponsored the Colorado River Basin Conservation Act.
Through the System Conservation Pilot program, Colorado River users can receive compensation for voluntary and temporary water conservation measures.
“This funding, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, will enable the Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with the Upper Colorado River Commission, to immediately move forward to implement the System Conservation Pilot Program,” a news release from Hickenlooper’s office states.
