2025 Annual Operating Plan for Colorado River Reservoirs

Each year’s Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for Colorado River Reservoirs reports both on the past operations of the Colorado River reservoirs for the completed year and projected operations and releases from these reservoirs for the current (i.e., upcoming) year. Accordingly, this 2025 AOP reports on 2024 operations as well as projected operations for 2025. In recent years, additions to the Law of the River such as operational rules, guidelines, and decisions have been put into place for Colorado River reservoirs including the 1996 Glen Canyon Dam Record of Decision (ROD), the Operating Criteria for Glen Canyon Dam, the 1999 Off-stream Storage of Colorado River Water Rule (43 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 414), the 2001 Interim Surplus Guidelines addressing operation of Hoover Dam, the 2006 Flaming Gorge Dam ROD, the 2006 Navajo Dam ROD to implement recommended flows for endangered fish, the 2007 Interim Guidelines for the operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the 2012 Aspinall ROD, the 2016 Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement and ROD (2016 LTEMP EIS ROD), Minutes No. 323 and 330 between the United States and Mexican Sections of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), the agreements related to the 2019 Colorado River Drought Contingency Plans (DCPs)12 as authorized by Public Law 116,  the 2024 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for Near-term Colorado River Operations ROD (2024 Interim Guidelines SEIS ROD), and the 2024 Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision (2024 LTEMP SEIS ROD).  Each AOP incorporates these and other rules, guidelines, and decisions, and reports on how the criteria contained in the applicable decision document or documents are implemented. Thus, the AOP makes projections and reports on how the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) will implement these decisions in response to changing water supply conditions as they unfold during the upcoming year, when conditions become known. Congress has charged the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) with stewardship and responsibility for a wide range of natural, cultural, recreational, and tribal resources within the Colorado River Basin. The Secretary has the authority to operate and maintain Reclamation facilities within the Colorado River Basin addressed in this AOP to help manage these resources and accomplish their protection and enhancement in a manner fully consistent with applicable provisions of federal law including the Law of the River, applicable provisions of State law, and other project-specific operational limitations.

The Secretary recognized in the 2007 Interim Guidelines that the AOP provides an integrated report on reservoir operations affected by numerous federal policies: “The AOP is used to memorialize operational decisions that are made pursuant to individual federal actions (e.g., ISG [the 2001 Interim Surplus Guidelines], 1996 Glen Canyon Dam ROD, this [2007 Interim Guidelines] ROD). Thus, the AOP serves as a single, integrated reference document required by section 602(b) of the CRBPA of 1968 [Colorado River Basin Project Act of September 30, 1968 (Public Law 90-537)]16 regarding past and anticipated operations.”