Producer
Bureau of Reclamation (US DOI)
The Bureau of Reclamation (Denver CO; agency of the US Department of the Interior; ~10,000 employees; ~$1.5B annual budget) is the federal operator of the Colorado River's major water infrastructure — Hoover Dam (Nevada/Arizona border; 726-foot concrete arch-gravity dam; 2,074 MW nameplate capacity), Glen Canyon Dam (Page, AZ; 710-foot; 1,320 MW), Davis Dam (Laughlin, NV), Parker Dam, and the Central Arizona Project (CAP) pump-lift infrastructure. Reclamation operates Lake Mead (the largest US reservoir by capacity: 26.12 MAF total; ~37 miles long when full) and Lake Powell (second largest: 24.32 MAF total; Glen Canyon). Reclamation administers the Law of the River — the collection of compacts, treaties, court decisions, and federal statutes governing Colorado River allocation — and makes annual shortage determinations triggering automatic water delivery cuts to Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico. Under the 2007 Interim Guidelines (amended by the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan), Reclamation declares shortage tiers based on Lake Mead elevation: Tier 1 (<1,075 ft elevation), Tier 2 (<1,050 ft), and Tier 3 (<1,025 ft). Each tier triggers progressively larger cuts to Lower Basin allocations (Arizona bears ~60% of shortage cuts due to Arizona's junior water rights under the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act). Reclamation is simultaneously the regulator, the infrastructure operator, and the allocation enforcer for the most contested water resource in North America.
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Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell (Bureau of Reclamation) →
USArizona/Utah border · infrastructure
Glen Canyon Dam (Page, AZ; completed 1966; 710-foot concrete arch dam; 1,320 MW nameplate capacity; operated by Bureau of Reclamation) creates Lake Powell — the second-largest US reservoir by capacity (24.32 MAF) and the primary Upper Basin storage buffer. Lake Powell sits just upstream of Lee's Ferry — the official gauge point for the Colorado River Compact that divides Upper Basin from Lower Basin allocations. Reclamation must release sufficient water past Lee's Ferry to meet the Lower Basin's 7.5 MAF/yr Compact entitlement. In extreme drought, if Lake Powell cannot sustain minimum power pool (3,525 ft elevation; ~6.1 MAF), Glen Canyon Dam turbines cannot generate power. In 2022, Lake Powell reached its historic low: 3,522 feet — 3 feet BELOW minimum power pool — temporarily impairing hydroelectric generation. Reclamation conducted emergency upstream reservoir releases (from Flaming Gorge and other Upper Basin reservoirs) to prevent Glen Canyon Dam shutdown, the first time such emergency action was taken. Source: https://www.usbr.gov/uc/water/crsp/cs/gcd.html
Hoover Dam / Lake Mead (Bureau of Reclamation) →
USNevada/Arizona border · infrastructure
Hoover Dam (Boulder City NV/Mohave County AZ border; completed 1935; 726-foot concrete arch-gravity dam; 2,074 MW nameplate hydroelectric capacity; operated by Bureau of Reclamation) creates Lake Mead — the largest US reservoir by water volume (capacity: 26.12 million acre-feet; ~37 miles long when full; ~112 miles of shoreline). Lake Mead is the principal storage reservoir for the Lower Colorado River Basin and the primary water source for Nevada (Southern Nevada Water Authority intakes), Arizona (via Davis Dam and Lake Havasu), and California (via Colorado River Aqueduct). Hoover Dam generates approximately 4 billion kWh/year at full capacity for the Southwest power grid (Nevada, Arizona, California). As Lake Mead elevation drops below 1,075 feet, hydroelectric capacity decreases — losing approximately 25% of power output at Tier 1 shortage level. At 895-900 feet elevation (dead pool / minimum power pool), Hoover Dam generators can no longer operate. Lake Mead reached its historic low of 1,041 feet on July 26, 2022 — triggering both the first-ever Tier 2 shortage declaration AND reducing Hoover Dam power generation by approximately 30%. Source: https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/damfaqs.html
Lake Shasta / Central Valley Project — California Rice Water Supply →
USCalifornia · other
Primary reservoir for Sacramento Valley rice irrigation via Central Valley Project. Capacity 4.55 MAF; supplies Glenn-Colusa ID and other districts serving ~500,000 acres of California rice. In 2022 drought, some districts received 0-18% of contracted allocation.
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Colorado River Water Allocation
40%Hydroelectric Power Generation
30%Western Water Infrastructure
20%Water Resource Regulation & Planning
10%
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Did you know2023
The Bureau of Reclamation's Lake Mead elevation simultaneously determines: (1) how much water Arizona cotton farmers, Arizona cities, Nevada cities, and Mexico receive under shortage tier rules; (2) how much hydroelectric power Hoover Dam generates for the Nevada-Arizona-California grid; and (3) whether Las Vegas has functional water supply (the Las Vegas Valley Water District's intake pipes are at 1,000 ft elevation — below that, the city must rely on the lower intake drilled in 2015). These three supply chains — western agricultural irrigation, western municipal water supply, and southwestern hydroelectric power — are not governed by three separate agencies. They are governed by a single federal bureau, run by a single commissioner appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, applying a century-old body of law written when the Colorado River flowed at twice its current volume. When Lake Mead hit 1,040 ft elevation in August 2022 (Tier 2 shortage), it simultaneously cut water to Arizona farms, reduced power from Hoover's turbines, and activated contingency water supply for Nevada cities — three supply chain disruptions triggered by one federal agency's annual determination.
US Bureau of Reclamation ↗Origin2023
The Bureau of Reclamation was created by the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, to solve a political crisis: the arid American West had been settled by homesteaders who could not sustainably farm without irrigation, and private water development was not happening at sufficient scale. The Reclamation Service (renamed Bureau of Reclamation in 1923) was given the mandate to dam western rivers and deliver water to farms, enabling the agricultural settlement of land that otherwise could not sustain the populations Congress wanted to put there. Early projects were modest irrigation canals. Then the New Deal transformed Reclamation's scale: Hoover Dam (completed 1936, 726 feet high, then the world's largest dam) and Grand Coulee Dam (completed 1942, still the largest power producer in the US) were federal projects that simultaneously created jobs, generated electricity for wartime aluminum production, and stored water for postwar agriculture. The same agency that Theodore Roosevelt created to water homesteaders' crops now controls the water and power supply of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson — four of the ten largest US cities — from two reservoirs in the Mojave Desert.
US Bureau of Reclamation ↗