Upper Colorado River states announce voluntary cutback program

Four states in the upper basin of the Colorado River this week announced a program through the Upper Colorado River Basin Commission to temporarily conserve water from the over-leveraged river as the West weathers a historic drought.

The plan, unveiled by representatives of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming Wednesday, would subsidize users of river water to voluntarily cut back on their use. The pilot program would pay participating users at least $150 per acre-foot of water conserved.

The System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP) is tentatively set to begin next April, with $125 million in funds provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. Submissions will be assessed based on a combination of potential water preservation, diversity of location and likelihood to offset the effects of the drought.

“The SCPP is a significant step to begin to partially mitigate the water supply crisis in the Upper Colorado River Basin brought on by a drier climate and depleted storage. The SCPP will provide short-term reductions to reduce some impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin,” the commission said in a statement. “However, longer-term and durable solutions are needed to not only stabilize the system but to rebuild water supply resiliency in the Upper Colorado River Basin.”

The announcement comes as the western U.S. has struggled with the impact of the 20-year drought on the Colorado River. Use of the river’s waters is governed by a century-old interstate agreement that allocates more water than currently flows through it. Shortages in the river basin have led to dramatically receding water levels in two of the nation’s biggest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, threatening the hydroelectricity they generate.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has called for the states in the compact to find a way to reduce use by at least 2 million acre-feet or risk federal intervention. However, the voluntary program announced Wednesday does not include a specific target.