S. 5000: To provide for a memorandum of understanding to address the impacts of a certain record of decision on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund

This bill directs the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration, in consultation with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group, to enter into a memorandum of understanding to explore and address the potential impact that the final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan (LTEMP) has on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. The memorandum of understanding must include a plan to (1) explore and address the effects that the decision may have on the contents of the fund, (2) analyze and address the long-term impact that the decision may have on hydropower production at Glen Canyon Dam, and (3) protect the Colorado River Basin and any threatened or endangered species in the basin from the effects of invasive species and sustained drought.

By way of background, Reclamation published the SEIS under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for the LTEMP in 2024. The SEIS revises the 2016 LTEMP Record of Decision to address two issues: (1) responding to the threat of the invasive smallmouth bass below Glen Canyon Dam, and (2) incorporating the latest sediment science to assess when high-flow experiments should be conducted in order to protect the endangered humpback chub.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.