9567

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9567
• Author: Colorado River Water Conservation District.
• Title: River of Shortages
• USFW Year: 2006.
• USFW - Doc Type: Drought, Demand and Consensus on the Colorado River - 2006 Colorado River District Annual Water Seminar.
• Copyright Material: NO

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Section 1.0 Introduction and Background
At this time, the Department does not have detailed guidelines in place that define the
circumstances under which the Secretary would reduce the annual amount of water
available for consumptive use from Lake Mead to the three Lower Division states below
7.5 maf pursuant to Article II(B)(3) of the Decree. Nor are there guidelines in place to
enable the Secretary to manage the competing interests of Lake Powell and Lake Mead
under low reservoir conditions. As a consequence of this, water users who rely on the
Colorado River in these states are not currently able to identify particular reservoir
conditions under which the Secretary would reduce the annual amount of water available
for consumptive use from Lake Mead to the Lower Division states below 7.5 maf. Nor
are these water users able to identify the frequency or magnitude of any potential future
annual reductions in their water deliveries.
The adoption of specific Colorado River Lower Basin shortage guidelines and
coordinated reservoir management strategies to address operations of Lake Powell and
1 Lake Mead, particularly under low reservoir conditions, will enable the water users that
rely on the Colorado River to better plan for periods of less than Normal water deliveries.
Additionally, these management strategies are also expected to facilitate conservation of
' reservoir storage, thereby minimizing the adverse effects of long-term drought or low-
reservoir conditions in the Colorado River Basin.
1.4 Lead and Cooperating Agencies
Reclamation is the Lead Agency in preparing the proposed EIS. Five Cooperating
1 Agencies are also participating in this EIS process which include the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Western Area
Power Administration, and the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water
Commission. Reclamation will consult with and obtain the comments of these agencies
due to their jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to any environmental
impact that may result from the proposed Action.
1.5 Public Involvement and the Scoping Process

Scoping is the phase in the NEPA process whereby the initial range of issues to be
analyzed in the EIS is determined. This phase occurs as early in the process as possible
and is an open process intended to obtain the views of the public, agencies, tribes and
other interested parties regarding the scope of the study.
For this project, Reclamation held two series of public meetings to obtain input from the
public regarding the scope of the study. The initial series of public meetings was held in
July 2005 (see Federal Register (FR) notice of June 15, 2005, Appendix B). The purpose
of this first series of meetings was to solicit input from the public regarding the content,
format, mechanism, and analysis to be considered during the development of the
proposed shortage guidelines and reservoir management strategies. The outcome of this
initial public input process was a decision by the Department to begin a formal NEPA
process and preparation of an EIS. The second series of public meetings was held in
November 2005 (see FR notice of September 30, 2005, Appendix Q. The purpose of
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