Congress authorized reclamation to fund grants to implement the colorado river basin drought contingency plan (DCP), consistent with the obligations of the secretary under the colorado river drought…

Congress authorized reclamation to fund grants to implement the colorado river basin drought contingency plan (DCP), consistent with the obligations of the secretary under the colorado river drought contingency plan authorization act (P.L. 116-14), and related agreements. The funding is targeted to the upper colorado river operations program based on reclamations analysis of likely eligible projects and its ability execute funding in 2023. Reclamations spending plan for these funds includes a total allocation amount of 50,000,000 for DCP implementation activities in the upper colorado river basin, with 8,700,000 to be expended in the federal fiscal year of 2023. The implementation strategy for disbursement of the funds includes reclamations upper colorado river basin project managers and leadership working collaboratively with and through the upper colorado river commission (ucrc) and the upper division states of colorado, new mexico, utah, and wyoming to identify key infrastructure and limited duration data-gathering and analysis activities that support and further operationalize drought contingency planning and implementation of the upper basin DCP. Ucrc is a public entity that represents and works on behalf of the upper division states on colorado river management and related issues.similar agreements between ucrc and reclamation have been executed for the implementation of the upper colorado river basin system conservation pilot program (scpp) (2014-2018) and more recently the ucrcs investigation into the feasibility of a demand management program in the upper basin (DM investigation) (2018 2022). The scpp was successfully administered by the ucrc with assistance from reclamation, and the more recent DM investigation has also been finalized. Due to the increased opportunities for learning from, and success of the scpp and the DM investigation, the ucrc and reclamation desire to undertake related DCP implementation activities within a similar administrative framework.