Colorado River Drought Contingency Plans
In December 2017, Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman called on the seven Colorado River Basin States and water entitlement holders in the Lower Colorado Basin to develop Drought Contingency Plans (DCPs) to respond to ongoing historic drought conditions in the Basin and reduce the likelihood of Colorado River reservoirs – particularly Lake Powell and Lake Mead – further declining to critical elevations.  All seven Colorado River Basin States have been working diligently throughout 2018 on a set of draft DCP agreements that would implement Drought Contingency Plans in the Upper and Lower Basins.  The agreements include an Upper Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Plan and a Lower Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Plan.

• The Upper Basin DCP is designed to: a) protect critical elevations at Lake Powell and help assure continued compliance with the 1922 Colorado River Compact, and b) authorize storage of conserved water in the Upper Basin that could help establish the foundation for a Demand Management Program that may be developed in the future.
• The Lower Basin DCP is designed to: a) require Arizona, California and Nevada to contribute additional water to Lake Mead storage at predetermined elevations, and b) create additional flexibility to incentivize additional voluntary conservation of water to be stored in Lake Mead.

The Upper and Lower Basin DCPs contain actions in addition to the provisions of the December 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead and are available here for download.

• Drought Contingency Plan
• Drought Contingency Outreach Presentation
• Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Webinar (Recorded 10/9/18)

Updated Climate Plan Available
Gov. John Hickenlooper released an updated edition of the Colorado Climate Plan, a statewide set of policy recommendations and actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to increase Colorado’s level of preparedness. The revised Plan reflects advances in the discussion on how best to address climate change at the state level as well as progress since the release of the initial plan in 2014; and wraps in the objectives contained in Gov. Hickenlooper’s executive order of July 2017 that committed the state to additional climate action. The plan can be found HERE.

Public comments on the plan collected last fall and have been addressed and incorporated where appropriate. A summary of how those comments were addressed can be found HERE.