Demand Management Feasibility Investigation

BACKGROUND

The Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) is a suite of agreements signed by the seven Colorado River Basin States in 2019, and designed to provide additional security to the Colorado River System. One element of the DCP in the Upper Basin is the Demand Management Storage Agreement, which provides authorization for the Upper Division States to develop a Demand Management program if they determine it is feasible to do so. Colorado has initiated a process to investigate feasibility of a potential Demand Management program within the state, on a parallel track to efforts at the interstate level.

This process follows the direction from the CWCB in the Support and Policy Statement adopted in November 2018, which led to the development of the fiscal year (FY) 2019/2020 Work Plan for the investigation of Demand Management, completed in June 2020, and then most recently the Step II Work Plan, now ongoing.

THE FRAMEWORK

CWCB released a draft Framework in March 2021 with possible implementation options for if a program were to be set up.

ENGAGEMENT & DECISION-MAKING PYRAMID

THE DECISION-MAKING ROADMAP

In September 2021, the CWCB adopted a decision-making roadmap for moving forward with the feasibility investigation. The roadmap identifies specific elements of the major outstanding questions of whether or not such a program would be achievable, worthwhile, and advisable from the perspective of Colorado.

Learn more about Demand Management.

For more information or to submit comments, email demandmanagement@state.co.us.