Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected a request by Colorado and its neighbors to help refill the badly depleted Lake Powell this year by reducing outflows from the giant reservoir.
The decision, announced Monday, disappointed officials in the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah. They wanted Norton to send a message to California, Nevada and Arizona that she could curtail releases from Lake Powell to its downstream sibling, Lake Mead, in times of drought.
Norton opted against a midyear change because greater- than-expected snowfall will boost Lake Powell’s level by close to 50 feet this spring.
Russ George, Colorado’s director of natural resources, said he would rather see abundant spring runoff than a continuation of drought that would force Norton to act.
“It turns out Mother Nature has given us more time than we figured,” he said.
Parts of Norton’s decision sat well with state officials, however.
Norton rejected the claim by California, Nevada and Arizona that she lacked authority to make a midyear correction in the operations of Glen Canyon Dam. And she said the 2006 water-year operating plan, which runs from September to September, would include another review in April.
Last fall, with the region still gripped by drought and Lake Powell at historic lows, Norton ordered an unprecedented midyear review of scheduled releases from Glen Canyon Dam.
But abundant snowfall and record rain in the Southwest changed water-supply projections dramatically. As a result, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to release 8.23 million acre-feet of water – the normal amount – from Lake Powell by the end of September.
At that rate, hydrologists estimate that Lake Mead will drop from 60 percent full to about 57 percent full as Lake Powell rises to about 47 percent of its capacity.
Observers said Norton’s decision was just as significant for what it didn’t do.
By offering something to each side, Colorado’s former attorney general sought to avoid poisoning the upcoming seven- state talks about how to share the pain of future droughts, they said.
The Interior Department hopes to have the Colorado River’s first drought-management blueprint in place by the end of 2007. But to do that, Norton will need all seven basin states to work together to avoid a potentially divisive court fight.
Talks over refilling Lake Powell, which ended last month with the two sides far apart, suggest consensus may be hard to achieve.
The fight centers on ambiguities in the Colorado River Compact, a 1922 agreement allocating the river’s waters among several states. The compact was an attempt by Western states to preserve the rights of upstream states to develop water at their own pace without losing it to California, which was developing faster than the rest of the region.
Colorado officials have long begrudged the loss of water to downstream states that Colorado is entitled to use but hasn’t yet developed.
Recently they have encouraged the Upper Basin states to “push the envelope as often and as hard as it takes” – in the words of the state’s top negotiator.
The tactic is part of a strategy to force a resolution of questions with the river compact that have come up as a result of the drought, George said.
Among them are how much the Upper Basin should contribute to the 1.5 million acre-feet owed to Mexico each year and whether California, Nevada and Arizona should feel the pinch when drought strikes the headwater states.
Colorado’s newly aggressive stance has ruffled the feathers of officials in other states, who say pursuing a strategy that creates winners and losers is highly risky.
“Believe me, if this ends up in court, I think we can declare the compact obsolete,” said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “And that would be very unfortunate because the compact, in itself, is fine. It’s how we choose to deal with it that’s making it difficult.”
As painful as the upcoming negotiations may turn out to be, it will beat the alternative, said Dennis Underwood, chief executive of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
“The worst thing we could do is have a recovery and not address these issues,” he said.
Staff writer Theo Stein can be reached at 303-820-1657 or tstein@denverpost.com.
