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Scoping Summary Report Executive Summary March 2006 The level of detail presented in this document is appropriate for a scoping report. The Bureau of Reclamation will analyze and refine the information presented in this report through the remaining steps of the National Environmental Policy Act process. On May 2, 2005, in a letter to the to the seven governors of the Colorado River Basin States, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior (Secretary) directed the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to develop specific Colorado River Lower Basin shortage guidelines and coordinated reservoir management strategies to address operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead under low reservoir conditions (see Appendix A). It was anticipated that, among other potential elements, these strategies would identify those circumstances under which the Secretary would reduce the annual amount of water available for consumptive use from Lake Mead to the Lower Division states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) below the 7.5 million acre-feet (maf) apportionment (a "Shortage") pursuant to Article II(B)(3) of the Supreme Court Decree in Arizona v. California. Reclamation issued a Federal Register (FR) notice on June 15, 2005 (70 FR 34794- 34795), Appendix B, which solicited public input on the content, format, mechanism, and analyses to be considered during the development of proposed shortage guidelines and reservoir management strategies. A series of public meetings were held, and the level of public interest and comment was high. The outcome of this process was a decision by the Department of the Interior (Department) to begin a formal National Environmental Policy Act process and preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). On September 30, 2005, Reclamation published a Notice of Intent (NOI) (70 FR 57322- 57323), Appendix C, to prepare an EIS and described the proposed Action as having two elements: 1) adoption of specific Lower Basin shortage guidelines, and 2) coordinated reservoir management strategies to address operations of Lakes Mead and Powell under low reservoir conditions. The NOI also initiated a public scoping process to solicit input on the scope of specific shortage guidelines and coordinated reservoir management strategies and the issues and alternatives to be considered and analyzed in the preparation of the EIS. As part of this process, four public scoping meetings were held throughout the Colorado River Basin, and Reclamation received a number of written comments. Four sets of comments were also received following the closing of the comment period and are being considered in this Scoping Summary Report. These include comments received from the initial government-to-government consultations with Indian Tribal Governments, the Basin States' Preliminary Proposal Regarding Colorado River Interim Operations, and two supplemental comment letters submitted by Environmental Defense and the Defenders of Wildlife. ES-1