BOARD02599

• Board Meeting Date: 11/23/1998
• Description: Colorado River Basin Issues - Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Program - Status Report - Letter from the Secretary of the Interior to Al Gore
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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In addition, the GCP A directs the Secretary to implement section 1802 in a manner fully
consistent with ~ 1802 lists certain specific laws and compacts existing laws that govern
allocation, appropriation, development, and exportation of the waters of the Colorado River
Basin.

Section 1803 of the GCP A validated the interim operating criteria adopted by the Secretary in
1991 and provided for consultation, deviation from interim operations, and a method for
termination upon adoption of final operating criteria.

Section 1804 of the GCP A required preparation of an EIS on operations, adoption of
operating criteria and plans, reports to Congress, and reallocation of costs. The EIS
requirement merely validated the Secretary's earlier direction to Reclamation and provided
specific timeframes for preparation and submittal. The final Environmental Impact
Statement for the Operation of Glen Canyon Dam (GCDEIS) was filed with the
Environmental Protection Agency in March 1995 and a Record of Decision (ROD) was
signed in October 1996.

The ROD changed two flow parameters from those .shown in the preferred alternative of the
EIS. They were (1) increasing the normal maximum flow from 20,000 cfs to 25,000 cfs and
(2) increasing the upramp rate from 2,500 cfslhour to 4,000 cfs/hour. The ROD also changed
the triggering mechanisms for conducting beach/habitat-building flows. Instead of
conducting them in years in which Lake Powell storage is low on January 1, they will be
conducted in years in which Lake Powell storage is high and requires reservoir releases in
excess of powerplant capacity for dam safety purposes.

Following the signing of the ROD, the Secretary adopted a set of operating criteria and the
1997 Annual Plan of Operations (see Appendix B). This terminated the 1991 interim flow
criteria.

Reclamation has begun the process of reallocating the costs of construction, operations,
maintenance, replacement, and emergency expenditures among the purposes directed in
section 1802 of the GCPA and the purposes established in the Colorado River Storage
Project Act of April 11, 1956. Work began in water year 1997 and will continue in water
year 1998. All work will be performed in consultation with the Secretary of Energy.

Section 1805 of the GCP A requires the Secretary to establish and implement a long-term
monitoring and research program (see the section entitled "Adaptive Management Program"
for details).

Section 1807 makes the costs of preparing the EIS, supporting srudies, and long-term
monitoring programs described in section 1805 nonreimbursable, except in fiscal years 1993-