Explain that a little bit for us, Luke, and just how dire the situation is for the groundwater in the region. Grim Future for Lake Powell Water levels in Lake Powell are at record lows. 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. Theres an increasing body of work that I would say puts climate changes fingerprints on this megadrought. 2002, 2018 and 2021 are the most intense dry periods on record for the basin. The river is a lifeline, providing water to more than . This summer, the water. A drastic drought could bring shortages of one to 1.5 million acre feet, he said. Luke Runyon is the water reporter at KUNC in Greeley, Colorado. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. And its easy to put them off if you get a wet year. After seeing 30 inches of rain in one day in Louisiana, 20 inches in Houston, unprecedented drought in California over the last 5 years, not to mention the flow reductions in Colorado River, Udall said, I think we need to seriously consider water-related climatic events that have no historical precedent.. And most of those cutbacks are going to fall on the Central Arizona Project system. The government predicts that Lake Mead's water level will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) by June, the level . Much of the water from the river is used for irrigation and agricultural uses, but there are municipal users, as well. Having a reliable Lake Powell to back up Lake Mead is crucial especially during a period of uncertainty, Lower Basin users say. 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. All signs point to a hotter, drier future for the Western U.S. 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. Dry soils soak up snow when it melts, keeping it from rivers and reservoirs. 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. Riparian rights do not entitle a water use to divert water to storage in a reservoir for use in the dry season or to use water on . A pair of before and after photos at Lake Powell . As a key ingredient in everything from asphalt to microchips, scientists are trying to make sand extraction more ecologically friendly. And you know, thats way beyond any sort of voluntary conservation that Arizona has done up until this point. Theyre roughly 25% full now, saidBrad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. Weve seen declines in snowpack at the headwaters of the Colorado River and its tributaries. How they disrupt our daily life, fuel disasters. Big Water, Utah It's hard to believe a place as beautiful as Lake Powell is also a shadow of its former self. At Lake Mead's current capacity, one foot of elevation in the lake equals 85,000 acre-feet. While levels are on a long downward trend, they fluctuate with the seasons. The dam stopped up the Colorado River, creating Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States. Many of the. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The big question is how water managers will divvy up a shrinking supply to feed a growing region. And how can certain policy agreements, policy negotiations, be structured in order to allow tribal nations to come to the table and negotiate for future policies? Some of Americas largest cities depend on the water from Lake Mead. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Today its about half full, Kuhn said. Those are Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah. Without wet hydrology to replenish the reservoirs, the basin finds itself in an all but certain shortage condition for the first time." . The lake avoided serious problems during the drought because, in 1999, it was almost full. Its not just like, you get a miracle year and youre out of it. 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 Santa Cruz River is now a giant bed of dust and sand. In March, the reservoir passed an important threshold. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage. This cookie is used for storing country code selected from country selector. Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. 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. It wascreated by blocking the Colorado River atGlen Canyon in southern Utah and northernArizona. As snowpack runoff disappeared into dry ground instead of hitting the reservoirs, engineers calculated a 79% chance Lake Powell will fall below its minimum target water height of 3,525 feet above sea level next year. Officials managing the effort say computer models show that taking these steps would reduce the risk of catastrophically low levels to near zero. How does climate change affect you? LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting. 2020. . In this column provided by Writers on the Range . For context, on the scale of no drought to worst drought, theres no category that captures conditions more dry than exceptional. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . The . Below 3,490 feet of elevation, Lake Powell dips into a zone where the generation of hydropower by water flowing through the Glen Canyon Dam becomes unreliable. 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. The Colorado isn't running low on information about water supplies. And Lake Mead is currently at 37% capacity. If water levels at Lake Powell drop just another 32 feet, those generators will stop spinning. But even some creosote is dying, unable to take the one-two punch of both the hottest and driest conditions on record last year in parts of Arizona. It can hold 9.3 trillion gallons of water at its peak and reach an elevation of 1,220 feet above sea level. Things will have to change in how we do business.. Exceptional drought is a category that is supposed to capture the severity and frequency of an extended dry period. Joining me to shed a little bit more light on this is Luke Runyon. So the question is, how bad is it going to get? 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. 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. Lake Powell is the town's lifeline. 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. 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 . Water management requires planning for the future. An official shortage declaration from the federal government could come as early as this year, as Lake Mead is currently projected to be below 1,075 feet in elevation at the end of 2021. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. The shoreline it creates, in a red rock desert, is longer than the entire U.S. West Coast.. And that sponge is very dry right now, and its sucking up all of that water before it can be used as water supply. 30 Broad Street, Suite 801 Those cutbacks are likely to grow steeper in 2021. 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. "We can make up energy through fossil fuels, but if we fall short on water, we have to restrict supply because there are little to no replacements," he said. Share on Facebook; . Powell is not drying out in a vacuum.. JOHN DANKOSKY: This is Science Friday. Correction 01/16/23 10:56 a.m. 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. LinkedIn sets this cookie to store performed actions on the website. In March, the reservoir passed an important threshold. In addition, the river itself experiences more evaporation. And it doesnt allow ratepayers who rely on power production from the canyon to be forward-thinking and operate under conditions of certainty., Cities, farmers and fish all need certainty when it comes to water, and this is the opposite of certainty, Hawes said. And it takes several years of good weather in order to bring the system out of drought. Lake Powell is supposed to buffer water supply during times of drought [and] it is not performing that function now. 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. Lake Mead's level is 1,047 feet above sea level. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The Glen Canyon Dam, D'deest'in Htsaa, marks where the water level in Lake Powell on the Colorado River, reaches. At that point, Upper Basin states would start delivering water from their other reservoirs to Powell. Water levels in Lake Powell dropped to a new record low on Tuesday. And it would increase the likelihood of cutbacks in river water deliveries to Arizona, in particular. You cant do that with groundwater. Hes a reporter at KUNC, based in Fort Collins, Colorado. The water levels behind the Colorado Rivers biggest dams are fast-approaching or already at record lows. What is the current status of Lake Powell? In the year 2000, the two reservoirs were 95% full. Because of that, the spring and early summer will bring a temporary boost to water levels while snow runs into rivers and eventually flows into Lake Powell. 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. "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. Falling water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have been concerning for several years. The Colorado River basin has experienced three D4 droughts in the last 20 years, including the current one. The Southwest United States is wrapping up an abnormally dry winter. That includes releases of water upstream of Lake Powell, and voluntary cuts in Powells downstream neighbor, Lake Mead. YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. At the same time,demand has risen due to increased population growth in the West. With modest reductions in flow, they would be meaningful.. He and his wife have four cats, thousands of bees, and a yoga studio in the sleepy Northwest hills of Connecticut. For those talks to start in the middle of another record-breaking dry period should make it clear to everyone involved: the future of the Colorado River is all about learning to live with less. In an emergency request issued in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation urged states relying on the Colorado River basin to reduce their water usage by between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet over the next 18 months. LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection. The lake was just under 24 percent full as of. Future conservation efforts are highly uncertain. 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.. In the short term, yes. I'm not sure a lot of Las Vega. The water level on Lake Powell is 100 feet from its high mark in August 2013. And really, what were seeing in the basin is that warming of just a couple degrees has the potential to completely upend how the water cycle functions in the Southwest. Weve seen evaporation increase from reservoirs and streams at higher temperatures. 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. Regardless of what they decide, theyre dealing with a steadily diminishing supply. Its also headed toward a record low later this year. 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? 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. 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. If allocations from the Colorado River dip below the levels necessary for some customers to receive hydropower, the real question [becomes] what can our grid accommodate from a hydropower perspective in terms of compensating production losses from Glen Canyon? said Justin Mankin, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College. LUKE RUNYON: Well, Arizona is in the line for the steepest cuts from the Colorado River. The low levels arent just causing hand-wringing among the Wests water officials. Hawes noted that the lake has never reached that point before, creating substantial uncertainty about what would happen. Newsweek previously. The story has been updated to reflect this information. Shes a big fan of stories related to strange animal facts and dystopian technology. The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra water in Lake Powell. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. We are really in unprecedented territory right now, and its not even close, Meyer said. The increase in temperatures means the atmosphere is thirstier. According to the National Park Service, contaminants from the newly exposed shorelines are reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated. And thats left Lake Powell at 34% of its capacity. Azure sets this cookie for routing production traffic by specifying the production slot. Thanks so much for joining us. Science Friday is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its lagging in both the Upper and Lower basins, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects much of the watershed totilt toward hotter and drier weatherfor the rest of the winter. Lakes Mead and Powell. Last week, the lake reached a disturbing new. It's been a vital force for the intermountain West because of its ability to. 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. Lake Powell upstream of Lake Mead on the Colorado River is at its lowest level on record. 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 installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. 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. It doesnt matter if we get an incredible snowpack, our soils are so depleted right now that thats not going to really translate to water coming down through the river systems, Meyer said. Dead pool is 3,370 feet. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. 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. Lake Powell is rapidly drying up as a result of the scorching megadrought in the Western U.S., and may completely disappear in just decades. "I've been here since 2007 and obviously this is way lower than I've ever seen it.". Twitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. Lake Powell is in crisis. This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC with financial support from the Walton Family Foundation. JOHN DANKOSKY: When you use the term megadrought, that sounds like a newer term. Since Lake Powell is primarily sandstone, the lake actually leaks water into the porous rocks. The second would step up cloud-seeding programs to try to boost snowfall in the region. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. As of August 10, water levels were measured to be 3,534.51 feet above sea level. But it plays a huge role in the Colorado River basin. As water levels fall in the reservoirs and river, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has implemented a tiered shortage system to reduce the allocated amount certain regions in the lower basin receive from the river to preserve water. At 70 feet below the level of Lake Powell as of spring 2021, this stage of Fill Mead First would allow much of Glen Canyon's world-renowned landscape to reemerge and be restored. This segment is part ofThe State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. The April-July forecast for Colorado River runoff into Lake Powell is 74 percent of average. Stock image of Alstrom Point, Lake Powell. 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These ICS uses, at the high end, amount to two and a half feet of elevation in Lake Mead. 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. 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The droughts that we are seeing are becoming that much more severe because of the temperature component, theyre warmer, Bolinger said. 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. The reservoir is integrating all the problems we have, all the challenges we face show up in that one number, in that one place, he said. Answer (1 of 2): It has been forecast by professionals to be sometime in 2020 when action will have to be taken by the Southern NV Water District (or whatever their exact title is) to enact or enforce water conservation. The idea that these smaller upstream reservoirs can continue to compensate Powells losses, thats not the case, he said. 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. Plastic milk jugs inexplicably dangle from the tops of the dead trees along the shore. Newsweek previously reported that Lake Mead's dead pool level is 895 feet, while Lake Powell's is 3,370. The Department of the Interior had asked the seven states of the Colorado River Compact to come up with a plan to cut between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of water by January. This is when were supposed to be gaining and accumulating water in the form of snowpack, and thats not happening, Selover said. Lake Oroville, a key component of California's water supply, also benefited from the early-winter storms, as . Copyright 2021 Science Friday Initiative. In parts of the Colorado River basin, Bolinger said climate change has caused conditions on the ground to bump up against the designated drought categories. Udall questioned the validity of using the years before 2000 because the years 1990 to 1999 were very wet and not representative of the weather we see now. JOHN DANKOSKY: So its not just the reservoirs, though, where you see these dramatic pictures of just how low the water is. JOHN DANKOSKY: So you know, with so many stories like this, we say, this is probably due to climate change. That leaves a sizable deficit and little time to turn things around. Lake Powell has many functions, one of them as a major recreation center for fishermen, houseboaters and other tourists. The river also crosses over the US-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora. And by themselves they are no longer sufficient to meet the area needs. And it's not a backroom voodoo mystery that only fortune tellers can forecast. Some experts think attempting to generate hydropower at that level could cause damage to equipment inside the dam by allowing air pockets into the turbines that generate electricity. Nimbull: It dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced water in stores. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, for water. Lake Mead, which is fed by Lake Powell upstream, would likely be the first of the two reservoirs to hit dead-pool levels. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. It sucks up moisture from forests, backyard gardens and crop fields with greater intensity. At full capacity, Lake Powell holds enough water to flood the entire state of Kentucky a foot deep. Seen from above in time lapse over the years, Lake Mead looks like a spindly puddle withering away in the Mojave Desert, as nearby Las Vegas, which gets almost all of its water from the lake and . Ultimately, experts said the future of the lake must be addressed in a way that creates the certainty it was intended to provide. Even though conditions may be evolving and getting even worse, we dont really have a way to depict that, because D4, thats that ceiling, she said. What to know about the West's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell is the nation's second-largestreservoir. And data updated Monday from the California Department of Water Resources' tracker show the reservoir climbing to 60%, still below historical levels for February 72% but significantly higher than it had been. . The dryness is currently off the charts in parts of the watershed. But Lake Powell's current water level is the lowest since it was first filled almost 60 years ago. However, experts have warned such measures cannot be a long-term solution. The first warning sign would come if a drought pushed the lake below 3,525 feet, almost 85 feet below where it is now. Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile. 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. Water levels have been getting lower and lower, and for the first time ever, a shortage seems almost certain. University of California professor Jay Lund previously told Newsweek that the cuts already implemented aren't enough, and in order to give the reservoirs ample time to recover through rain and snowpack melt, people will need to reduce their consumption even more. Climatologist Jon Meyer with the Utah Climate Center said the number that captures the severity for him is 12 inches. Even hardy desert plants, the ones well-adapted to water scarcity, have struggled. We are still facing a nearly 1 in 4 chance of Lake Powell returning to "minimum power pool" by 2024 - a risk that remains steady through 2026, the latest year for which Reclamation has forecast. works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. The southwestern US has been dealing with drought conditions for years, and thats had a big impact on the Colorado River basin. LUKE RUNYON: Yeah, and this is a question that has been of intense interest to climate scientists. The nation's second-largest reservoir is strained by more than two decades of drought, and its water levels are slipping dangerously low. They both use water from the Colorado River. Work on the dam that created Lake Powell began in 1956 and was finished in 1966. Microchips, scientists are trying to make sand extraction more ecologically friendly get miracle... 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