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The news keeps getting worse for Lake Powell, the nation's second largest reservoir, which is currently just 22 percent full. Bureau of Reclamation officials shared during a virtual meeting on Saturday that the reservoir is just 32 feet away from dropping to “minimum power pool,” the point at which Glen Canyon Dam would no longer be able to generate hydropower for 4.5 million people living in the Southwest.
“There is now an acknowledgment, unlike any other time ever before, that the dam is not going to be suited to 21st century hydrology,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the environmental group Great Basin Water Network, who listened to the virtual meeting. “They’re not sugarcoating that things have to change there, and they have to change pretty quickly.”
Federal officials warn that if the water level in Lake Powell drops below minimum power pool, the main intakes would need to be shut down and water would instead flow through Glen Canyon Dam’s lower bypass tubes. Because of those tubes’ reduced capacity, less water would flow downstream, shrinking the Colorado River’s flow in the Grand Canyon and accelerating the decline of Lake Mead toward “dead pool,” the point at which water would no longer pass through Hoover Dam to Arizona, California, and Mexico.
“We're 32 feet above where problems occur. And we've had years, recently, where we've lost 50 feet or more of reservoir volume,” said Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University and a Colorado River expert. “We're one bad year away from reaching the point where we can't generate hydropower. That's the first worry here.” Hear more from Brad Udall about the crisis on the Colorado River in the latest episode of The Landscape, CWP's podcast.
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Ultimately, I think what we’re going to see here is some major rewriting of Western water law. We’re seeing a collision right now between 19th century water law, 20th century infrastructure and 21st century population and climate change. And how this works out is anybody’s guess.”
