Lake Powell, the country's second-largest reservoir and a key source of water and power for much of the West, is more parched than ever.Earlier this month, the lake dropped below 25% capacity . Lake Mead's decline is not happening in isolation, but is the result of a two-decade drought hitting the western U.S. and causing critical water shortages on the Colorado River. These cookies do not allow the tracking of navigation on other websites and the data collected is not combined or shared with third parties. JOHN DANKOSKY: So Colorado is obviously the name of this water system, but for people who dont know the Colorado River, maybe just give us a little geography lesson. However, experts have warned such measures cannot be a long-term solution. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. And this is just the beginning of what could happen if the lake keeps drying up. If decision makers do nothing and take no action and just let the reservoir crash without structurally modifying the dam, there will be a lot of really big problems.. It takes sustained changes in order for these systems to recover. Stretching for 186 miles along the border of Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell serves as one of two major reservoirs that anchor the Colorado River. In addition, Mankin said, interventions like the Flaming Gorge release treat the western U.S.s 20-year drought as a localized phenomenon rather than a regional one. Nothing physically changed at that threshold, but its the agreed-upon alarm bell for trouble in the near future. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. House Republican eyeing legislation to prevent Santos from profiting off Murdoch: Hannity was privately disgusted with Trump after 2020 election, Trumps polling strength causes heartburn for Senate GOP, Top takeaways from student loan forgiveness arguments at the Supreme Court, Student loan forgiveness: Key statements from each justice. It doesn't strain the mind to imagine us losing power within a year. He and his wife have four cats, thousands of bees, and a yoga studio in the sleepy Northwest hills of Connecticut. LUKE RUNYON: Well, this is kind of a narrative or storyline in the basin that has gotten a lot more attention recently, is how have tribal users been excluded from agreements in the past? Lake Mead and Lake Powell rise and fall together, said Chuck Cullom, the Central Arizona Projects Colorado River programs manager. The Bureau's projections show a 3% chance that Lake Powell's water levels fall below the minimum level necessary for the lake's Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydroelectricity next year. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. So Luke, I dont know is this all just because of climate change? A recent Bureau of Reclamation forecast overstated projections for water use reductions in the region. Last week, the lake reached a disturbing new. I said at the top that we dont have an official water shortage. Explain that a little bit for us, Luke, and just how dire the situation is for the groundwater in the region. Climatologist Jon Meyer with the Utah Climate Center said the number that captures the severity for him is 12 inches. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. But the warming temperatures that were seeing make it considerably worse than it would have been. The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra water in Lake Powell. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. Its also in the groundwater, something that you cant see. Lake Oroville (of the enormous spillway failure fame) and Lake Shasta, two of California's largest reservoirs, are at critical levels. The latest data shows the reservoir at 3,523 feet above sea level. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better experience for the visitors. If water levels at Lake Powell drop just another 32 feet, those generators will stop spinning. The water level decline . Levels on Lake Powell, which stores water for the. If the drought and excessive water use continues, Lake Mead could reach dead pool in the next two years and Lake Powell could soon follow. Page mayor: Lake Powell is not drying up. During those 25 years, the rivers annual flow averaged 13.2 million acre feet a bit less than what the Bureau of Reclamations studies have predicted it would carry by 2050 thanks to warming weather and other climate changes, Ostler noted. That leaves a sizable deficit and little time to turn things around. He and his wife have four cats, thousands of bees, and a yoga studio in the sleepy Northwest hills of Connecticut. Okay. When its needed its released to Lake Mead and the three Lower Basin states. Glen Canyon Dam can release water below minimum power pool through bypass jets until an elevation of 3,370 feet, which is then the top of dead pool and no further water can be released. Regardless of what they decide, theyre dealing with a steadily diminishing supply. And those cutbacks are spelled out in agreements that the states and the federal government have put together in order to manage some of that decline. Welcome back to Science Friday, Luke. What to know about the West's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell is the nation's second-largestreservoir. LUKE RUNYON: Sure, so much of the attention in the basin goes towards the rivers largest reservoirs, which also happen to be the biggest reservoirs in the entire United States. "Climate change makes these extreme weather events both more frequent and more severe, '' Matthew Casale, Environment Campaigns Director at non-profit advocacy group PIRG, previously told Newsweek. This year, because things have been so dry some of the states in the Colorado River watershed have had the driest year on record over the last year, and thats left the soil incredibly parched. JOHN DANKOSKY: This is Science Friday. Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River, Arizona. Its impossible to even guess the odds of the Colorado Basin getting another six-year arid spell any time soon, said Udall and another longtime Colorado River researcher, Connie Woodhouse, a professor in the University of Arizonas School of Geography and Development. Lake Mead's water level on Wednesday was measured at 1,044.03 feet, its lowest elevation since the lake was filled in the 1930s. The water levels in Lake Powell are dramatically lower than they were in 2021, which in turn were lower than they were in 2020. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. The river carried an average of 14.7 million acre feet from 1906 through 2015. I would say less than 20 percent, Ostler said. Meanwhile, climate change is adding pressure to the entire river system, exacerbating existing supply and demand imbalances. Lake Powell has been called "Jewel of the Colorado" by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. JOHN DANKOSKY: Luke Runyon is a reporter based at KUNC in Fort Collins, Colorado. After more than 22 years of drought compounded by warmer temperatures with climate change, Lake Mead and Lake Powell have declined to their lowest levels since they were filled. The southwestern states have been gripped by drought for over 22 years, experts say. Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. We don't know what happens below 3,490, said Taylor Hawes, Colorado River program director at the Nature Conservancy. Azure sets this cookie for routing production traffic by specifying the production slot. The Colorado River systems reservoirs combined arecurrently less than half full. Used by Yahoo to provide ads, content or analytics. Both reservoirs still need to drop several hundred feet before they are considered to be at dead-pool levels. Tony graduated from Northwestern University and started at the Star in 1997. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. The negotiations promise to be a more intense process than the basin saw in the lead-up to the last set of guidelines in 2007, or the effort to bring together drought contingency plans in 2019. Just as water demand is going up, the supply is going down. "That means that due to climate change, it is more likely that we will see [more] extreme heat waves". Copyright 2021 Science Friday Initiative. Cookie used to remember the user's Disqus login credentials across websites that use Disqus. If the reservoirs reach dead-pool levels, more than a million people using the electricity could be required to find new power sources. For context, on the scale of no drought to worst drought, theres no category that captures conditions more dry than exceptional. In addition to the power the lake generates directly, it is a major source of grid resilience when full, serving as a quick backup source in cases where solar or wind power cant meet demand. The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. The shoreline it creates, in a red rock desert, is longer than the entire U.S. West Coast.. Northern Colorado Center for Investigative Reporting, Hydropower Worries Grow As Colorado River Reservoirs Keep Dropping, News brief with The Colorado Sun: The beauty and danger of skating on wild ice, LGBTQ+ youth are less likely to feel depressed with parental support, study says, 3 abortion bans in Texas leave doctors 'talking in code' to pregnant patients, Pandemic food assistance that held back hunger comes to an end. But if the regions dry period repeats itself, he said, youll need fundamental change. His uncle, Stewart Udall, voted to create Lake Powell as an Arizona congressman in 1956 and shepherded construction of the Glen Canyon Dam that holds back the lake while he was interior secretary in the early 1960s. Air entering the system would also damage the generators. Both Utah and Nevada experienced their driest years on record in 2020. And that sponge is very dry right now, and its sucking up all of that water before it can be used as water supply. The Southwest United States is wrapping up an abnormally dry winter. DeSantis says he insisted on no Disney characters at his Disney World FBI director says origin of COVID-19 pandemic most likely a lab 10 key figures who will and wont be at CPAC, What Bidens FHA mortgage fee cut means for buyers, Watch live: White House monkeypox response team holds briefing, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. People are having to do things that you dont necessarily see, but we have water being hauled for livestock, water being hauled in for wildlife, Selover said. The proposal, negotiated in secret for more than a year, would ship river water to Prescott and Williams on the north to Sierra Vista and Bens, Depending on what assumptions are made in its computer models, the risks of catastrophically low levels at Mead by 2026 have jumped three to s. By the end of the summer, its projected to be even lower, at 29% of its capacity, which is a record low. Water levels in Lake Powell dropped to a new record low on Tuesday. In the second stage of Fill Mead First, the reservoir's level would near 3,374 feet, near the river outlet works. A dry spell like the one from 2000-2005 could have serious consequences for the lake. In the year 2000, the two reservoirs were 95% full. Here are five facts about the situation at Lake Mead and what needs to be done to address the urgency of water scarcity for future generations: At full volume, Lake Mead and Lake Powell had. Is climate change the same thing as global warming? What is the current status of Lake Powell? He covers the Colorado River basin. Joining me to shed a little bit more light on this is Luke Runyon. . The repercussions of a draining water supply are immense -- farms are drying up, a once-thriving marina now sits more than a mile from lake water and Arizona's Department of Water Resources is . And thats a word that youre hearing a lot more, is megadrought, not just this temporary state of drought. In an average year, Lake Powell gets enough water that it can release a bit more 8.23 million acre-feet a year. And thats because some of these past agreements have put that state in the most vulnerable position for cutbacks. John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir and one that provides water and power to millions of people in southern California, has reached its lowest levels since its first filling in. The sp_t cookie is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. This cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing. Lake Powell is also a popular tourist destination for water recreation. Thats important for the entire region, Fleck said, because the backdrop of an impending crisis will set the tone for those negotiations. This is the highest percentage of land in the rivers Upper Basin since 2002, which stands as the regions driest year on record. Things will have to change in how we do business.. And what does that mean for the users on the river? LinkedIn sets this cookie for LinkedIn Ads ID syncing. As of August 10, water levels were measured to be 3,534.51 feet above sea level. The lake that once covered 400 square miles has shrunk 90 percent, leaving behind oxygen-deprived, highly salinized water with a rotten-egg odor that permeates the surrounding area. The big question is how water managers will divvy up a shrinking supply to feed a growing region. "Its unfortunate that thelargely natural occurrence of a drought has coincided with this increasing warming due to greenhouse gases," said Flavio Lehner, aprofessor of atmospheric sciences at Cornell University. A . If its dry there, that means many more problems as the water flows downstream. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Water levels dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. And there is some evidence that this dry period would have happened without our greenhouse gas emissions. This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years., THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. Drought contingency plans for the Upper and Lower Basin are now in use. In coming years, it's going to get worse and worse and worse.. The vast stripe rimming Powell is a testament to how far its level has dropped since 2000, when the Colorado's flows began a steady decline in response to persistent drought, warming temperatures. But the last time it was anywhere close to that level was 1999. The combined reservoirs in Utah are below 50% full. Lake Powell (credit: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) The power pool mark is 3,490 feet of elevation. At 3,522 feet, Lake Powell's water surface elevation is at its lowest point since it was first filled in the 1960s, per a statement. Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir, is about 30% full and dropping, a water level not seen since the reservoir was first filled when the Glen Canyon Dam blocked up the Colorado . The dropping water levels are indicated by white marks on the canyon wall, often likened to a bathtub ring. A large portion of the water in the Colorado River and Lake Powell comes from high-mountain snowmelt in Colorado and Wyoming. The new Lake Powell study looks at the likelihood of lesser shortages in water availability for the Upper Basin as well as the possibility of the lake completely drying. Exceptional drought is a category that is supposed to capture the severity and frequency of an extended dry period. A drought that has gripped the Southwest is creeping the nation's two largest reservoirs toward a dead pool, which would have catastrophic consequences for water users in the Colorado River's lower basin. Two Mexican states also receive Colorado River water. In the desert of California lies another manmade lake condemned to death, the Salton Sea. And thats left Lake Powell at 34% of its capacity. It can hold 9.3 trillion gallons of water at its peak and reach an elevation of 1,220 feet above sea level. Lake powell has an electrical generation station there. 40 fun events happening in Tucson this weekend Feb. 23-26 , Opinion: Help protect Lake Mead and Colorado River water, Colorado River runoff forecast keeps dropping, Warm weather reducing Colorado River runoff, study finds, Feds back off from Lake Mead water demand, Businesses, residents paid to save water in this Arizona valley, Tucson to leave nearly 20% of its CAP water in Lake Mead, 'Toilet to tap' water treatment will soon be legal in Arizona, officials say, Big snowstorms put Colorado River drought plan on ice, Colorado River tops group's 'endangered' list again, CAP-California water deal that Arizona nixed provokes ongoing conflict, Water bailout? Throughout the history of the American West, water issues have shown their ability to both unite and divide communities. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. The district entered 2021 with a record 3.2 million acre-feet of water storage saved up, including 1.3 million acre-feet in Lake Mead. What states, what tribal nations, does this cut through? The dam's evil has had no more prolific publicist than the writer Edward Abbey, whose Monkey Wrench Gang aspired ultimately to bring down the dam. Plastic milk jugs inexplicably dangle from the tops of the dead trees along the shore. 2020. At 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam reaches "minimum power pool." If Lake Powell recedes much further, one of the nation's largest reservoirs could be at risk of no longer generating hydropower for the region. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. And its easy to put them off if you get a wet year. I mean, what sort of disputes are coming to the forefront because of this? Created by Bluecadet. Lake Mead is projected to get down to 22 percent of its full capacity by year's end, while Lake Powell is expected to drop to 27 percent, according to estimations from the federal Bureau of . And theres already a supply-demand imbalance on the Colorado River, and the supply is shrinking faster than officials are able to shrink the demands that we have on the river. . This cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The increase in temperatures means the atmosphere is thirstier. Even if nothing is done, he believes the risk quite low. NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads. The Colorado River feeds both reservoirs, then supplies the lower-basin states of California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico with water. Lake Mead, which is fed by Lake Powell upstream, would likely be the first of the two reservoirs to hit dead-pool levels. We don't know if we can release water to meet downstream requirements. What about the idea of a water shortage? The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. Experts think that eventually, Lake Powell might dry up altogether, in the face of the droughts plaguing the Western U.S. Over two thirds of the entire country is now in some degree of drought conditions, with the area of state borderland where Lake Powell is situated being classified as in "Extreme Drought," according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. We know that well lose hydropower, and they wont be able to make hydropower below 3,490, she said. Newsweek previously. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. If levels dropped below 3,490 feet, there wouldnt be enough water flowing through Glen Canyon Dams turbines to generate power. Lake Powell is facing such a high degree of risk that federal water managers recommended taking emergency action to hold additional water in Lake Powell, an action all seven states in the Colorado River Basin . Theyre roughly 25% full now, saidBrad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. But its fundamental purpose under the federal law that created it is to serve as a water insurance policy for the Colorado River Basin. During the 2000-2005 drought, Lake Powell lost 13 million acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet. Contact reporter Tony Davis at [email protected] or 806-7746. They've been ignoring the problem coming for decades and decades. LUKE RUNYON: So in the Colorado River basin, a lot of the management of the river is tied to the level of its two largest reservoirs. Are experts looking at this saying, its just going to get worse in the Colorado River basin? The Upper Colorado Commissions computer models have shown that if the Upper Basin states take the precautionary measures theyre talking about, the risk of Powell falling to dangerously low levels is near zero even if the basin gets another 25 years of weather like it did from 1988 through 2012, said Don Ostler, executive director the Upper Colorado River Commission. The water level on Lake Powell is 100 feet from its high mark in August 2013. The second largest reservoir in the U.S. by total capacity after Lake Mead, Lake Powell spans the Utah/Arizona border, and is an artificial lake created from damming the Colorado River. But Lake Powell's current water level is the lowest since it was first filled almost 60 years ago. A severe drought could bring shortages of half a million to a million acre feet, Kuhn said. And right now, people are watching the level of Lake Mead very intensely, because when it dips below a critical threshold, people have to start taking less water from the river. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . At the time of publication, Lake Powell was sitting at only 3,529 feet only four feet above this important threshold. In the short term, yes. Down the Colorado River lies Lake Mead, which is also seeing lower water levels than ever before. The challenges are really hard, Fleck said. The first warning sign would come if a drought pushed the lake below 3,525 feet, almost 85 feet below where it is now. Lake Powell is the town's lifeline. It is something in peer-reviewed, published science for decades and decades that the managers of the Colorado River have been ignoring.. And you know, those are cutbacks that users are actually going to feel and that municipal leaders, farmers, tribal users in Arizona are having to plan for right now. And as we warm even further, it makes it that much harder for our infrastructure, our water storage, to recover. Share on Facebook; . "You might not see the lush lawns of today and endless fields of alfalfa, but you will see thriving communities and agricultural regions. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. If that does come to pass, Tyrell said he is fairly confident we can deal with worst case scenario if it ever happens.. Arizona, which receives 36 percent of its water supply from the river, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, has been hit hardest by the cuts. If the outlet tubes cant meet the reservoirs needs, she said, the flow of water in the Grand Canyon itself could be reduced to a trickle. The loss of generation from the lake would deprive the grid of about a quarter million households worth of power. People should definitely not feel like the agencies managing the Colorado River have it under control, he said. The water in Lake Mead on Wednesday reached a new low 1070.6 feet above sea level since it was filled in the 1930's, according to data provided by the US Bureau of Reclamation. It survives, she said. This summer, the water. Hes also been a long-time guest host on Science Friday. The river is a lifeline, providing water to more than . The nation's second-largest reservoir is strained by more than two decades of drought, and its water levels are slipping dangerously low. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. It took 16 years for it to fill. These reservoirs are as empty now as when they started filling Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s, said John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexicos water resources program. If its done intentionally, the drawbacks of losing the reservoir could be minimized and the benefits could be maximized, Balken told The Hill. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. In a wetter year, it will release 9 million acre feet to Mead. The southwestern US has been dealing with drought conditions for years, and thats had a big impact on the Colorado River basin. Fidelity to the original aired/published audio or video file might vary, and text might be updated or amended in the future. The nation's second-largest reservoir is under pressure from climate change and steady demand, and is now . Lake Powell is a few hundred feet above dead-pool level. What are the effects of climate change? Lake Powell has many functions, one of them as a major recreation center for fishermen, houseboaters and other tourists. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, or the amount of water that will flood an acre of land to a depth of one foot. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage. In case of a drought like that of 2000-2005, Lake Mead would get 7.48 million acre-feet, worsening the structural deficit that is already causing Mead to drop by up to 12 feet a year due to the Lower Basin states chronic overuse of river water compared to supply. Its 90% of the water supply to Las Vegas, 50% to Phoenix, effectively 100% to Tucson and 25% to Los Angeles, said Udall. Forecasts are calling for 4.1 million acre-feet of water to flow into Lake Powell from April to July this year, but water managers are obligated to release more than 7 million acre-feet out of the lake. We don't know if the dam will operate as expected. Grim Future for Lake Powell Water levels in Lake Powell are at record lows. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application. A height of one foot considerably worse than it would have happened without our greenhouse gas emissions mark in 2013. The supply is going up, including 1.3 million acre-feet of water storage, recover! In 2020 pages are the most vulnerable position for cutbacks bring shortages of a! There, that means that due to climate change and steady demand, and is now he the. Year on record in 2020 year on record azure sets this cookie a. Portion of the two reservoirs were 95 % full major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at Nature. An abnormally dry winter say less than 20 percent, Ostler said contact tony. 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