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The Upper Colorado River Commission – comprised of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico – is set to announce details of an extended “System Conservation Pilot Program” through which water users could be paid to cut back on their use.
Water managers representing the four upper basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — released details of a conservation plan that would pay water users to voluntarily reduce their use of Colorado River water.
Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico unveiled the System Pilot Conservation Program, which would pay users in the Colorado River Basin to conserve water. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s largest reservoirs, are at historically low levels.
Upper basin officials say the plan is designed to prevent cuts to protect critical elevations at the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Both reservoirs now sit three-quarters empty.
Upper Colorado River basin officials have released details of a conservation program that would pay water users to reduce their use of Colorado River water, with the goal of implementing it as soon as this summer. “Anyone who is proposing or providing any sort of estimate about what this program might yield is engaging in wild speculation given the water stress that all the Colorado River water users are suffering in the upper basin,” Cullom said. The SCPP is open to Colorado River water users in the four upper basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — who can demonstrate...