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Do we protect lake levels at Mead to ensure that Southern Nevada Water Authority's <br />intakes are still able to draw water from Lake Mead? <br />Do we protect lake levels for recreational uses? <br />Keep in mind that every time a decision is made to protect a particular lake level, there <br />will be some reduction in water deliveries, either from the Upper Basin to the Lower Basin, to <br />the Lower Basin states, or to Mexico. <br />For example, let's take a scenario where we protect an elevation of 1050' at Lake Mead. <br />Why this elevation? Well, that is the lowest at which we believe the turbines at Hoover Dam <br />could operate and this also corresponds to the upper intake for the Southern Nevada Water <br />Authority. <br />If we want to protect this elevation 80% of the time in the future, we may need to reduce <br />releases in the Lower Basin as soon as 2009 and might need to impose those reductions in as <br />many as 4 out of every 10 years in the future. Larry Dozier spoke this morning from the <br />perspective of Central Arizona Water Conservation District regarding their views on managing <br />future shortages in Arizona, and the competing resource issues involved. <br />In addition to these concepts for development of shortage management rules for the <br />Lower Basin, the recent work of the Basin States has yielded concepts which may provide keys <br />to improved coordinated operation of Lake Powell and Lake Mead under low reservoir <br />conditions. <br />Under severe drought conditions, the current operation of Lakes Powell and Mead may <br />not be the most advantageous for providing multiple benefits including water supply, power <br />production, and recreation. Why? Under current operations, during periods of sustained drought <br />- as we have seen - Lake Powell's storage decreases more rapidly than Lake Mead's, putting <br />power generation and other resources at greater risk at Lake Powell. <br />Again, under current operations, as we recover from a drought and inflows increase, Lake <br />Powell begins to refill, while Lake Mead continues to decline, putting power generation and <br />other resources at greater risk at Lake Mead. Lake Mead's decline would continue until <br />"equalization" kicks in to increase releases from Lake Powell. <br />By modifying some of the existing operational rules for Lake Powell and Lake Mead <br />(e.g., Glen Canyon releases, equalization, and Hoover Dam releases) during periods of sustained <br />drought we may be able to retain project benefits for both Upper and Lower Basin stakeholders. <br />This approach doesn't create any new water for the system - but it would lead to Lakes <br />Powell and Mead rising and falling more in tandem. <br />We don't know if this approach will be the one that the Secretary will ultimately adopt, <br />but we certainly feel that there are concepts here that require serious consideration and analysis. <br />Prepared Remarks - Keynote Address <br />Law of the Colorado River 9 <br />