The Bureau of Reclamation's public meeting on the future management of Lake Powell and Lake Mead will be held today at the Salt Lake City Hilton, 255 S. West Temple, from 10 a.m.-noon, in the Topaz Room.To speak up:

The Bureau of Reclamation's public meeting on the future management of Lake Powell and Lake Mead will be held today at the Salt Lake City Hilton, 255 S. West Temple, from 10 a.m.-noon, in the Topaz Room.

Despite a wetter than average year, water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead remain near historic lows, and there is no guarantee the drought that has gripped the Colorado River Basin for most of this decade has gone away.

Faced with that scenario, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning its future management of the two reservoirs under low water conditions, and will seek public comment during a meeting today in Salt Lake City. The agency held another meeting Tuesday in Henderson, Nev.

The meetings are part of a larger process to "help facilitate better decision-making during future droughts," said Randy Peterson, the bureau's regional manager for environmental resources.

The seven states in the Colorado River Basin already have addressed the water issue for this year - or had it addressed for them.

After a dispute between the upper basin states (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico) and lower basin (Arizona, Nevada and California) over releases from Lake Powell reached a stalemate last spring, Interior Secretary Gale Norton ruled that the lower basin states would receive their annual allotment of 8.23 million acre-feet.

The upper basin had argued for a decrease, given that Powell at that time was filled to just 33 percent of capacity. But Norton reiterated that her authority allows her to reduce flows out of Powell next year as conditions warrant it.

The public meetings, along with continuing discussions between the upper and lower basin states, are part of a process to establish broad new criteria for such decisions in the future. The fundamental question: how to provide Colorado River water to 25 million residents amid decreased water resources.

The seven basin states signed a joint declaration going into the public meetings, vowing to "work cooperatively with the Department of Interior in the development of these strategies. We have agreed that [future] shortage guidelines should be designed to delay the onset and minimize the extent and duration of shortages in the lower basin."

The National Park Service has also weighed in, asking that the Bureau of Reclamation "evaluate the trade-offs between the natural, cultural and recreation resource needs" in creating new shortage strategies.

And conservationists are calling for tighter water-use restrictions. One proposal calls for surcharges on water and power use in the basin, and federal compensation for those reducing their water use during times of drought. Another seeks the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam altogether, with Powell' water going instead to what are now depleted aquifers.

jbaird@sltrib.com