A . LUKE RUNYON: So seven US states make up the Colorado River basin. LUKE RUNYON: Well, Arizona is in the line for the steepest cuts from the Colorado River. Understanding and explaining the depth of the dryness is up to climate scientists throughout the basin. Record-breaking high temperatures dragged well into fall. The lake avoided serious problems during the drought because, in 1999, it was almost full. All rights reserved. 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Forecasts dont paint a pretty picture for snowpack either. 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. Lake Powell is in crisis. Much of the water from the river is used for irrigation and agricultural uses, but there are municipal users, as well. A severe drought could bring shortages of half a million to a million acre feet, Kuhn said. Its not just like, you get a miracle year and youre out of it. We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. It doesn't strain the mind to imagine us losing power within a year. The dam stopped up the Colorado River, creating Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States. "The federal government generally prefers to let the stakeholders work things through, Sorensen said. Lake Mead and Lake Powell rise and fall together, said Chuck Cullom, the Central Arizona Projects Colorado River programs manager. This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC. Its 90% of the water supply to Las Vegas, 50% to Phoenix, effectively 100% to Tucson and 25% to Los Angeles, said Udall. Complicating matters are the ongoing talks on allocation between the seven states on the Colorado River, the source of the lakes waters. 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. The dry years are what force the really important steps forward in the policy community.. 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 latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show there's a. The water level at Lake Mead is sitting at just 39%, while Lake Powell is at 36%. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Correction 01/16/23 10:56 a.m. 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. And Lake Mead is currently at 37% capacity. 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. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. Big Water, Utah It's hard to believe a place as beautiful as Lake Powell is also a shadow of its former self. That year is the deadline for water users to negotiate a new set of managing guidelines for the Colorado River. Because of that, its expected that the Department of the Interior'sBureau of Reclamation, which oversees water management, will mandate onesometime next year. . Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday. The wells that now supply Tucson are at 400 - 500 feet under the surface. At the time of publication, Lake Powell was sitting at only 3,529 feet only four feet above this important threshold. Lake Powell has been called Jewel of the Colorado by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. 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? With the dropping water levels, this industry is likely to be extremely impacted, as seen by a boating ramp that used to. The river carried an average of 14.7 million acre feet from 1906 through 2015. The Colorado River cuts through dry land that was once covered by Lake Powell on September 7, 2022, near Hite, Utah. Today its about half full, Kuhn said. It's been a vital force for the intermountain West because of its ability to. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. Officials have already taken some stopgap measures to avert the lake getting down to the pivotal 3,490-foot mark. But it plays a huge role in the Colorado River basin. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The water levels behind the Colorado Rivers biggest dams are fast-approaching or already at record lows. The droughts that we are seeing are becoming that much more severe because of the temperature component, theyre warmer, Bolinger said. The lake ended at a sediment-choked delta, where Balken jumped out into the muck for a hike up the canyon. Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Federal and state officials have committed to a more inclusive process that integrates the needs of tribes, environmental and recreation groups, and Mexico. Contact reporter Tony Davis at tdavis@tucson.com or 806-7746. Water levels dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. Together, these reservoirs, fed by the mighty Colorado River, provide the water 40million Americans depend on. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. The dropping water and the reservoirs expanding bathtub rings are also tied to policy. The lake was just under 24 percent full as of last week, and had lost 16 feet in the last year. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. Frankel criticizes water managers for their inaction in the face of those trends. works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. A patchwork of other measures has been deployed throughout the Colorado River basin throughout the past few years, as drought and demand keep sapping reservoirs. 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? But a new study warns that the lake could virtually dry up in as few as six years if the region gets a repeat of the dry spell it experienced from 2000 to 2005. 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 . LUKE RUNYON: Yeah, and this is a question that has been of intense interest to climate scientists. It stores water as part of the Colorado River Compact and produceselectricity through the hydroelectric turbines in Glen Canyon dam. Officials managing the effort say computer models show that taking these steps would reduce the risk of catastrophically low levels to near zero. Credit: Alex Hager. JOHN DANKOSKY: So you know, with so many stories like this, we say, this is probably due to climate change. Mead was created when the Hoover Dam was completed in 1935. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. Skip Navigation. 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. "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. 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 low levels arent just causing hand-wringing among the Wests water officials. The government predicts that Lake Mead's water level will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) by June, the level . If its dry there, that means many more problems as the water flows downstream. Lake Powell (credit: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) The power pool mark is 3,490 feet of elevation. Luke Runyon is the water reporter at KUNC in Greeley, Colorado. That deficit is about the same amount of precipitation that falls across Utah in an entire year. Two Mexican states also receive Colorado River water. 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.. 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. Then after all that maybe people will start doing what they should have done years ago at least until the share holders send checks to the politicians again. Lake Oroville (of the enormous spillway failure fame) and Lake Shasta, two of California's largest reservoirs, are at critical levels. This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years.. Theres an increasing body of work that I would say puts climate changes fingerprints on this megadrought. The river also crosses over the US-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora. 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. 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. BACKGROUND: Western water crisis looms as California complicates critical water deal. The lower basin is made up of Arizona, Nevada, and California. 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. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. It does not store any personal data. If the reservoir dips below 895 feet a possibility still years. Welcome back to Science Friday, Luke. 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. 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. That deficit could easily put us below power pool within a year, just as a back of the envelope calculation, said Eric Balken, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute. Are experts looking at this saying, its just going to get worse in the Colorado River basin? Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. Kathryn Sorensen, research director at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, said it will push water managers further in the direction of finding more permanent solutions. The future of the reservoir is largely uncertain, but climate science and recent actions by the government are providing some hints as to what might happen in the near future. It also helps in fraud preventions. LUKE RUNYON: Well, I dont have a crystal ball. . They've been ignoring the problem coming for decades and decades. The Colorado isn't running low on information about water supplies. Tony graduated from Northwestern University and started at the Star in 1997. Fidelity to the original aired/published audio or video file might vary, and text might be updated or amended in the future. All signs point to a hotter, drier future for the Western U.S. At full capacity, Lake Powell holds enough water to flood the entire state of Kentucky a foot deep. The finding is ominous for the region's future drinking-water supply. Nearly all of Utah, New Mexico, . At this stage a significant amount of Glen Canyon . 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.. 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. Air entering the system would also damage the generators. The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra water in Lake Powell. 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 not creating certainty in the water market, Mankin said. Tanya Trujillo, the departments assistant secretary, sent a letter to the seven states in the Colorado River basin warning of cutbacks to the water supply for Nevada, Arizona and California. Powell is not drying out in a vacuum.. "I've been here since 2007 and obviously this is way lower than I've ever seen it.". 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. One acre-foot generally provides enough water for one to two households for a year. This drought will only be exacerbated by climate change, as the increased global temperatures are expected to increase the severity of drought weather and frequencies of wildfires, as well as influencing a vast range of other extreme weather events. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The two. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. 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. Depending on how you define "dry up." It's doubtful that all 1,450 miles of the Colorado River will turn to dust, even if we drain Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation's two largest. Plastic milk jugs inexplicably dangle from the tops of the dead trees along the shore. Theyre already low, because the entire watershed has been experiencing above-average temperatures and below-average river flows since the year 2000. This summer, the water. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. Azure sets this cookie for routing production traffic by specifying the production slot. Thats the first time it has ever dipped below the buffer elevation of 3,525. Lake Mead is the nation's largest reservoir, a companion to Lake Powell. Page mayor: Lake Powell is not drying up. Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River, Arizona. And thats Lake Powell in southern Utah and Lake Mead, which is on the Nevada-Arizona border near Las Vegas. 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