2021 SECURE Water Act Report to Congress

SECURE Water Act Report CoverSECURE Water Act Section 9503(c) — Reclamation Climate Change and Water 2021

The Bureau of Reclamation today released final technical reports supporting the Water Reliability in the West - 2021 SECURE Water Act Report. Reclamation's 2021 West-Wide Climate and Hydrology Assessment and seven individual basin reports provide detailed information on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies to increase water supply reliability in the West. A new 2021 SECURE Report Web Portal is also available to provide a user-friendly, web-based format for delivery of information in the reports.

The 2021 West-Wide Assessment provides estimates of changes in temperature, precipitation, snowpack, and streamflow across the West using consistent methodology, similar to previous SECURE Water Act Reports. For this report, additional drought analyses based on paleohydrology (using tree rings) was performed. These results will enable water managers to compare the frequency and severity of droughts that occurred several hundred years ago to projections of future droughts and develop water management strategies in time to take action.

The West-Wide Assessment finds that temperatures are expected to increase across the West while precipitation changes are variable. With warmer temperatures, more precipitation will fall as rain and snow will melt sooner, reducing snowpack in the future that can impact streamflow timing. These key findings on future climate and hydrology are consistent with the conclusions of the 2016 SECURE Water Act Report.

SECURE Water Act Report

Interactive Web Portal

West-Wide Climate and Hydrology Assessment (March 2021) Version 1.2 (PDF - 23 MB)
Errata Sheet for Versions 1.0 and 1.1 (June 2021)

News Release: Reclamation releases technical reports and interactive web tool supporting the 2021 SECURE Water Act Report (April 5, 2021)

Basin Reports

SECURE Water Act Webinars

To help with the understanding of the information provided in the assessment and seven basin reports, Reclamation held a series of webinars in the spring of 2021.

Recorded Webinars
Last Updated: 2/21/23