- Reclamation
- Colorado River Basin
- Colorado River Post 2026 Operations
- Colorado River Post 2026 Operations — Alternatives Development
Alternatives Development
The Post-2026 process is a multi-year NEPA process to determine long-term operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead after the expiration of existing operating agreements in 2026. The alternatives development phase of the process began in fall 2023 and will continue through fall 2024. The goal of this phase is to develop a broad range of reasonable alternatives for analysis in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Beginning in March 2024, proposed concepts for alternatives were submitted by Basin partners and stakeholders (submittals are posted below). Since that time, Reclamation has been working extensively with those entities to understand, gather additional information, refine, model, and perform preliminary analyses of their proposals as part of efforts to develop a reasonable and broad range of alternatives and to make progress towards building consensus-based, long-term, and sustainable river operations. The range of alternatives will be released in December 2024.
Central to Reclamation’s collaboration with entities on proposed alternative concepts is the development of a web-based Post-2026 Operations Exploration Web Tool. The tool is a result of decades of collaborative research and development and is designed to enable users with different levels of technical skill to explore, create, and compare potential operating strategies using a common platform to enhance the development of alternatives.
In early 2024, Reclamation received input from Basin partners and stakeholders with proposals and considerations for alternatives. Letters received are included below by date received and submitter.
- March 5, 2024 - Colorado River Upper Division State Representatives of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
- March 6, 2024 - The Colorado River Basin States Representatives of Arizona, California, and Nevada
- March 6, 2024 - Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- March 29, 2024 - National Audubon Society, Western Resource Advocates, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, American Rivers, The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, and Trout Unlimited
- March 29, 2024 - Center for Colorado River Studies, Eric Kuhn, and Utton Center, University of New Mexico School of Law
- March 29, 2024 - Gila River Indian Community
- April 29, 2024 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service
- May 8, 2024 - City of Phoenix
- May 16, 2024 - Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Tonto Apache Tribe, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni Tribe, Gila River Indian Community, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Ak Chin Indian Community, Ute Indian Tribe, Jicarilla Apache Nation, Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Las Vegas Tribe of Paiute, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Chemehuevi Tribe, White Mountain Apache Tribe, and Pasqua Yaqui Tribe
- June 3, 2024 - Department of Energy, Western Area Power Administration, Colorado River Storage Project