Demand Management

DEMAND MANAGEMENT

‘Demand Management’ is the concept of temporary, voluntary, and compensated reductions in the consumptive use of water in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Included as one of the tools in the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan, its goal centered on creating a water storage account in Lake Powell and the Upper Colorado River Storage Project Act reservoirs (Aspinall, Flaming Gorge and Navajo) of up to 500,000 acre feet (AF), which would aid all the Upper Basin States in meeting their Compact obligations.

The Colorado River District Board has not formally taken a position supporting or opposing the establishment of a demand management program in Colorado. The Colorado River District collaborated with partners including but not limited to, Southwestern Water Conservation District, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Tri-State Generation and Transmission, Inc., Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, the Grand Valley Water Users Association, and all four West Slope Basin Roundtables to conduct several related evaluations, including but not limited to, Phase III of the Colorado River Risk Study, the Secondary Economic Impact Study, and convened the group of stakeholders that resulted in the report below.

Upper Basin Demand Management Economic Study in Western Colorado

To view the Final Report, click here (.pdf) – September, 2020

Colorado River District Demand Management Stakeholder Report

To view the River District’s Demand Management Stakeholder Report, click here (.pdf) – August, 2021

Conceptual Market Framework

To view the Conceptual Market Framework, click here (.pdf) – April, 2022

Colorado River Risk Study

To view the Phase III Final Report, click here  – June, 2019

To view the Phase IV Final Report, click here – July, 2023