John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. ", States that use Colorado River Basin water mandated to cut use. 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. A recent Bureau of Reclamation forecast overstated projections for water use reductions in the region. Glen Canyon Dam in Lake Powell near Page, Arizona on July 4, 2010. A large portion of the water in the Colorado River and Lake Powell comes from high-mountain snowmelt in Colorado and Wyoming. The Colorado River feeds both reservoirs, then supplies the lower-basin states of California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico with water. 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. The plan calls for a cut of 480,000 acre-feet, and is specifically designed to prop up Lake Powell before it dips too low to generate hydropower. 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. The reality is that it's probably too little, too late.. Thanks so much for joining us. 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. what little rain and snow has fallen dries . First of all Lake Powell is not gonna dry up. Correction: A previous version of this story indicated that 3,490 feet is Lake Powell's "dead pool" level. But after more than two decades of drought it is now less than 1,050 feet the lowest since the lake was filled, and falling about a foot a week. 1. Its not quite as bad as 2002, she said, but it could easily get there. The river carried an average of 14.7 million acre feet from 1906 through 2015. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Used by Yahoo to provide ads, content or analytics. Nimbull: It dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced water in stores. JOHN DANKOSKY: So you know, with so many stories like this, we say, this is probably due to climate change. You cant do that with groundwater. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. Future conservation efforts are highly uncertain. "The federal government generally prefers to let the stakeholders work things through, Sorensen said. Climate change is driving more than two decades of drought across the region, and making it increasingly unlikely that Lake Powell will ever climb back to previous levels. Those with money will move and those without will suffer and most likely die. With the reservoirs approaching their lowest levels in modern history, that brings us to our final number: 2026. The low levels arent just causing hand-wringing among the Wests water officials. The basin is made up of portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. The dropping water and the reservoirs expanding bathtub rings are also tied to policy. Water levels dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . As of Thursday, Lake Mead was at 1,045.79 feet. Water levels in Lake Powell dropped to a new record low on Tuesday. Mountain snowpack is generally below average for this time of year, so that boost may not be as big as it has been in years past. If the water levels drop to levels below the intake pipes, the water flow will cease to turn the hydroelectric turbines, and the dam won't generate any power. 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. Complicating matters are the ongoing talks on allocation between the seven states on the Colorado River, the source of the lakes waters. We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. 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. Because of that, its expected that the Department of the Interior'sBureau of Reclamation, which oversees water management, will mandate onesometime next year. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Forecasts dont paint a pretty picture for snowpack either. The Lower Basins legal share is 7.5 million acre feet a year. Lake Powell has been called "Jewel of the Colorado" by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. Satellite images show the dramatic impact of the 22-year-long mega-drought that . Cookie used to remember the user's Disqus login credentials across websites that use Disqus. "It would kill 50 to 60% of the businesses in town," said Franz. You would have to go back to April of 1937, also twoyears into its initial filling, to find levels that low. The first warning sign would come if a drought pushed the lake below 3,525 feet, almost 85 feet below where it is now. He covers the Colorado River basin. Its 90% of the water supply to Las Vegas, 50% to Phoenix, effectively 100% to Tucson and 25% to Los Angeles, said Udall. 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. In addition, the river itself experiences more evaporation. 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. "You might not see the lush lawns of today and endless fields of alfalfa, but you will see thriving communities and agricultural regions. It does not store any personal data. Its been a vital force for the intermountain West because of its ability to store vast amounts of water and generate electricity for farmers, cities and towns in 13 states. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. But it plays a huge role in the Colorado River basin. One leg would involve reducing water demand by farmers and cities in the Upper Basin. A years worth of rain and snow is missing from Utahs ground. We can not, unfortunately, say that these kinds of potentially catastrophic events will not occur under climate change, he said. Reservoir storage is the best single number that captures two things: how much water nature provides and how much water humans are consuming out of that provision, Fleck said. Give us an idea, if you would, just how low the supply is in the basins reservoirs right now. This cookie is used for storing country code selected from country selector. The water levels in Lake Powell are dramatically lower than they were in 2021, which in turn were lower than they were in 2020. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. I said at the top that we dont have an official water shortage. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. So Luke, I dont know is this all just because of climate change? If that does come to pass, Tyrell said he is fairly confident we can deal with worst case scenario if it ever happens.. Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir and one thatprovides water and power to millions of people in southern California, has reached its lowest levels since its first filling in the 1960s. Lake Powell's feeble condition is part of a climate reckoning in the West that links water, ecosystems, food production, and energy generation. If the lakes levels drop below 3,490, Hawes added, the Bureau of Reclamation will have to run water through a series of river outlet tubes, the lowest delivery mechanism in the lake, for the first time since the 1980s, and bureau officials dont actually know if they can handle that much water, she said. Falling water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have been concerning for several years. So Im guessing over the next several years, as policies are negotiated, youre going to hear a lot more about how tribes are being involved in that process. The river is a lifeline, providing water to more than . So water from the Colorado River is now pumped across the state of Arizona via the Central Arizona Project (CAP). Brad Udall, a water researcher at Colorado State University whos not involved with the contingency plan, is less optimistic. Institute Executive Director Eric Balken said taking such a step would better position stakeholders to address the drought on their own terms rather than simply running out. Extremely dry years that produce eye-popping statistics tend to grab officials by the shoulders and give them a good shake. The river also crosses over the US-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora. If the water level continues falling on its own, below minimum power pool, the dam is physically incapable of releasing a lot of water. Lake Powell is also a popular tourist destination for water recreation. Powell is not drying out in a vacuum.. What to know about the West's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell is the nation's second-largestreservoir. During the 2000-2005 drought, Lake Powell lost 13 million acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet. But there is still this fundamental supply-demand imbalance in the Colorado River basin. He spent two years at Aspen Public Radio, mainly reporting on the resort economy, the environment and the COVID-19 pandemic. If Lake Powell recedes much further, one of the nations largest reservoirs could be at risk of no longer generating hydropower for the region. Tony graduated from Northwestern University and started at the Star in 1997. 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? Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. According to nonprofit news organization CalMatters, California, which receives the most water from the river at 4.4 million acre-feetmore than one-third of the river's supplyhas not yet been impacted by the cuts. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The wells that now supply Tucson are at 400 - 500 feet under the surface. A load balancing cookie set to ensure requests by a client are sent to the same origin server. VigLink sets this cookie to show users relevant advertisements and also limit the number of adverts that are shown to them. Definitions explained. This story is part of ongoing coverage of water in the West, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. Lake Powell (credit: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) The power pool mark is 3,490 feet of elevation. And this is just the beginning of what. And it would increase the likelihood of cutbacks in river water deliveries to Arizona, in particular. The year as I write is now 2018. which could funnel up to 300,000 acre-feet from Powell.One of those projects, Utah's Lake Powell pipeline to St. George, would . It is something in peer-reviewed, published science for decades and decades that the managers of the Colorado River have been ignoring.. If water levels at Lake Powell drop just another 32 feet, those generators will stop spinning. It also helps in fraud preventions. Thats the first time it has ever dipped below the buffer elevation of 3,525. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Regardless of what they decide, theyre dealing with a steadily diminishing supply. Youre hearing a lot more now, especially because the interior secretary, Deb Haaland, is herself a member of a Native American tribe and has put a lot of emphasis on bringing tribes to the table, making tribal consultation a big part of the Biden administrations priorities. Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. At its highest, in 1983, the lake was 3,708 feet above sea level. Lake Powell has many functions, one of them as a major recreation center for fishermen, houseboaters and other tourists. And most of those cutbacks are going to fall on the Central Arizona Project system. We're most likely witnessing the end of this reservoir. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. Drought contingency plans for the Upper and Lower Basin are now in use. The Lower Basin states of Arizona and Nevada have begun to see their deliveries from the river curtailed. For the authoritative record of Science Fridays programming, please visit the original aired/published recording. Weve seen evaporation increase from reservoirs and streams at higher temperatures. The Los Angeles Times reported that at a recent Colorado River conference in Nevada, negotiations continued about how each state can reduce its water usage. He and his wife have four cats, thousands of bees, and a yoga studio in the sleepy Northwest hills of Connecticut. Its not just like, you get a miracle year and youre out of it. 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Adverts that are shown to them them a good shake, 2010 was 3,708 above! And youre out of it dry years that produce eye-popping statistics tend to grab officials by shoulders!
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what happens if lake powell dries up