WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Reclamation announced that Carly Jerla will lead the Department of the Interior’s efforts, as a senior water resources program manager, to develop updated operating rules for Colorado River reservoirs. The Colorado River sustains ecosystems and economies across the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. A number of operating rules and agreements within the United States and with the Republic of Mexico expire at the end of 2025.
Recognizing the challenges facing the Colorado River Basin, in March of 2021, the Interior created a critical senior leadership position within the Bureau of Reclamation to lead development of the next generation of operating rules for major reservoirs in the basin. This new position will ensure that new operating rules are developed in a thorough and transparent manner – working closely with the seven Colorado River Basin states, twenty-nine tribes, water districts, non-governmental organizations, and users in Mexico that are served by the Colorado River.
“Reclamation has worked alongside our partners in the basin to ensure that plans are in place to respond to the current drought conditions, but we must continue to proactively develop innovative solutions that are sustainable beyond 2026,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo. “Carly Jerla will continue to play a key role in our collaborative approach to updating the Colorado River Basin’s operating rules and developing additional tools and agreements that recognize the needs of nearly 40 million people who rely on the river.”
“Carly Jerla is the right person for this new position,” said Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “Carly has exceptional technical and modeling skills, as well as a thorough understanding of the importance of working with our partners throughout the basin. She understands the importance of working together to find solutions – across agencies and across borders. During these times of drought and scarcity, Carly will build trust, build partnerships, and find solutions. She brings insight and integrity to her work, and we’re very pleased she will lead our intensive efforts in the months and years ahead.”
Carly Jerla’s career has been devoted to improving the technical foundation for Reclamation’s operational decisions across the basin, as well as enhancing partners and stakeholder’s ability to engage in basin decision-making. Jerla joined Reclamation in 2005 as a graduate student at the University of Colorado’s Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) in Boulder, Colorado. Currently, she leads a Modeling and Research Team based at CADSWES, which has responsibility for research and development of modeling applications and decision support for water operations and planning in the Colorado River Basin. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. She also earned a Master of Science in civil engineering from the University of Colorado in 2005.
Jerla’s experience with Reclamation includes important work on many of the key analyses and agreements over the past two decades to include:
- Serving as one of the key technical analysts for the adoption of the 2007 Interim Guidelines that address coordinated operation of Lake Powell and Lake Mead through 2026.
- Contributing to the 2012 Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study that defined current and future imbalances in water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin and developed and analyzed adaptation and mitigation strategies to resolve those imbalances over the next 50 years.
- Helping to lead and contributed to the 2018 Colorado River Basin Ten Tribes Partnership Tribal Water Study documenting how Partnership Tribes currently use their water, projecting how future water development could occur, and describing the potential effects of future tribal water development on the Colorado River System. The study also identifies challenges related to the use of tribal water and explores opportunities that provide a wide range of benefits to both Partnership Tribes and other water users.
- Contributing in the development of multiple new policy initiatives, most recently the Drought Contingency Plans finalized in 2019. These important plans reduced the risk of Colorado River reservoirs falling to critically low levels.
- Serving as co-lead for Interior’s technical Review of the effectiveness of the 2007 Interim Guidelines, known as the “7.D. report,” which was completed in December 2020.
The Colorado River is a critical resource in the West because seven basin states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – and 29 Tribes and the Republic of Mexico depend on it for water supply, hydropower production, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and other benefits. You can learn more about the operations of the Colorado River at https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin. The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and is the nation’s largest wholesale water supplier and second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation opportunities, and environmental benefits. Visit our website at www.usbr.gov and follow us on Twitter
