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III. Update on Drought/Hydrology in Basin: The 2005 Mid -Year Review <br />a. 2005 Annual Plan of Operations - Why Was the Mid -Year Review Initiated? <br />In addition to the MSCP, much attention over the past few months has focused on this <br />year's Annual Operating Plan "mid- year" review. First let me explain why this review was <br />undertaken. <br />As Don Ostler reviewed this morning, flows in the Colorado had been abnormally low <br />since 1999.1 In light of the drought and based upon the resulting decrease in storage in the <br />Colorado River Basin, the Department included a mid -year review provision in the 2005 AOP to <br />review the 2005 release amount from Lake Powell to determine if the runoff forecast warranted <br />an adjustment to the release amount this water year. <br />It's important to emphasize that this review was focused only on the operations of Glen <br />Canyon Dam for the remaining five months of this water year. <br />b. 2005 Water Year hydrology <br />Since adoption of the AOP last fall, and our commitment to undertake a mid -year review, <br />we've seen some encouraging improvement in the drought conditions in many parts of the Basin. <br />Snowpack in the Upper Basin currently stands at 126% of average. This year's April to <br />July unregulated runoff into Lake Powell is expected to be 8.9 million acre -feet or 112% of <br />average - more than double the inflow we saw last year. As a result, by July, Lake Powell is <br />expected to rise about 50 feet from this year's low point. <br />Lake Mead also has increased storage based on winter storms in the Southwest. We <br />anticipate that the net inflow to the Lower Basin will exceed 200% of average for this water year. <br />Terry Fulp and Reclamation's Lower Colorado Operations team worked closely with our <br />customers and the operations staff at the Corps of Engineers to make the most efficient use of <br />this runoff and we have all benefited by their efficient and coordinated operations this year. <br />An important insight to this year's improvement can be shown by the combined projected . <br />contents of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Last August, we projected that as of September 2005, <br />these two reservoirs would contain approximately 21.8 million acre -feet. Today, with the current <br />snowpack and runoff conditions, we project that the two reservoirs will contain 26.8 million <br />In water year (WY) 2000, inflow to Lake Powell was 62 percent of average; in WY 2001, it was 59 <br />percent of average; in WY 2002, it was only 25 percent of average, the lowest on record. In both WY 2003 and WY <br />2004 inflow to Lake Powell was 51 percent of average. Overall, inflow for this five -year period was roughly half of <br />normal. <br />Prepared Remarks - Keynote Address 6 <br />Law of the Colorado River <br />