If Glen Canyon Dam ceases to operate, we are going to have to replace that power somewhere else and it will have a bigger carbon footprint, said Bryan Hannegan, CEO of Holy Cross Energy, which buys Lake Powells hydropower to serve customers in Western Colorado. google_ad_format = "160x600_as"; A powerful winter storm will enter AZ early Tuesday night with rain and snow showers increasing across the region after midnight. At the same time, electric utilities across the West are looking for other green options and hoping that hydropower production wont stop altogether. Becky Mitchell is director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the states lead water planning agency. Click for Details, Current Snowpack Conditions for Upper Colorado Basin. The May report, released last week, is the final runoff prediction for the season. Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Geological Survey for comment. SW Water Vapor, Accessibility of Launch Ramps, Primitive Launches and Other Sites Together with the release of more water into Lake Powell from an upstream dam, the decision will keep the lake at a level at which it can continue generating hydropower for the next 12 months. The Colorado River flows in from the east around Mille Crag Bend and is swallowed by the lake. water-data.com Lake Powell Water Database. GCC is the official nonprofit partner of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area & Rainbow Bridge National Monument. The last couple months have steadied out a little bit, Cody Moser, a senior hydrologist with NOAA forecast center, said during a recent web briefing to review the most recent report. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. This was the lowest water levels have been since the lake was first constructed in the 1930s. Level 3 Shortage Condition 1,025 ft and below Elevation 1,090 ft Elevation 1,045 ft Historical Future google_ad_client = "pub-0146338466817273"; Arizona Public Radio | Your Source for NPR News, PublishedFebruary 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM MST. Credit: Alex Hager. Melissa joined KNAU's team in 2015 to report on science, health, and the environment. Wang suggests updating the reference period more frequently or using the last 20 years as the baseline. "I would be reluctant to limit it to years just since 2000, because I think there is some value in acknowledging the variability that goes on in our basin," he says. google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; 04:18 . The NOAA forecast center begins releasing monthly water supply forecasts for the Colorado River Basin in December. For additional information, the news release can be found here: https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/news-release/4294. Hydrologists recently updated the model that forecasts the level of Lake Powell. google_ad_format = "160x600_as"; The nation's second-largest reservoir is under pressure from climate change and steady demand, and is now . google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; Detailed Map of Powell The release volume from Glen Canyon Dam in January was 500 kaf. On Tuesday, the lake fell below 3,525 feet above sea level, a key target elevation that water managers have been trying to keep Powell above because it provides a buffer from the minimum level at which Glen Canyon Dam can generate power. (For comparison, the 1991-2020 total water year average is 9.60 maf.) An initiative of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she fell in love with the ecology and geology of the Sonoran desert. A century of river flow records combined with an additional four to five centuries of tree-ring data show that the droughts over the past two decades were not unusual; longer and more severe droughts are a regular part of the climate variability in that part of the continent. It can store about five times the average annual flow. There are continued discussions when and how that same amount of water (0.523 maf) will be . By Anna Skinner On 1/18/23 at 4:42 PM EST. He also was an associate editor at 5280 and a reporter for the Vail Daily. Last Reading: 3521.11 on Feb 27, 2023 Powell was last within 2" of this elevation on Feb 26, 2023 There are currently 1,734,731,016,499 gallons of water in Lake Powell! Chris Outcalt covers Western water issues for The Colorado Sun. Lake Powell is now at a historic low. Water availability, appropriate timing of releases, and impacts on other resources are all being considered as the 2022 Plan is being drafted.. "We might get lucky with the weather, but the idea of the system recovering is really hard unless you reduce water use in that basin," Lund told Newsweek. These projections are critical for planning for an increasingly dry future in the Colorado River Basin, but a new paper from Utah State University says the model may still underestimate the risk. She also sits on the Upper Colorado River Commission. But in a statement, she said, The Upper Basin States are working collaboratively with the Bureau of Reclamation to draft a 2022 Drought Response Operations Plan outlining potential releases from Upper Basin reservoirs in an effort to protect critical elevations at Lake Powell. Water levels in Narrow Canyon had dropped enough to show canyon floor features not visible in earlier images. The grim forecast comes as water officials race to bolster Lake Powells water levels. But the declining water already has drained some of the fun, he said. The picture was much different 59 years ago, when the giant storage reservoir on the Colorado River was filling, its electricity helping power the West and the revenue from its power sales helping fund endangered fish protection programs across the Colorado River Basin. SW Water Vapor, Accessibility of Launch Ramps, Primitive Launches and Other Sites Dry conditions and falling water levels were unmistakable in the image from April 13, 2003. Click for Details, Current Snowpack Conditions for Upper Colorado Basin. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years. CNN's Bill Weir has more. Under a Drought Contingency Plan adopted in 2019, approximately 500 thousand acre-feet (kaf) of water will come from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, located approximately 455 river miles upstream of Lake Powell. Projections at Lake Mead show there is a chance as high as 66% that water levels will decline to 1,025 feet by 2025, triggering a Tier 3 Shortage. The forecast is changing daily and there are still a lot of variables, said Lisa Meiman, a spokeswoman for WAPA. Water supply forecast volumes decreased across most of the region, Moser said during the webinar. In addition to the February 2023 24-Month Study based on the Most Probable inflow scenario, and in accordance with the Drought Response Operational Agreement (DROA)), Reclamation has conducted model runs in February to determine a possible range of reservoir elevations. The sediment-filled Colorado River appeared green-brown. A visual history of the water level of each of our Lake Powell trips over the past three years. and last updated 5:24 PM, Sep 24, 2021. It wasnt just the Powell number that dipped, although the amount of runoff that makes its way to Powell each year is considered a good barometer for conditions basinwide. Using the approach described in the immediately preceding paragraph, the August 2022 24-Month Study projected the January 1, 2023, Lake Powell elevation to be less than 3,525 feet. The plan can be found at the following website: https://www.usbr.gov/dcp/droa.html. Human actions created the Salton Sea, Californias largest lake heres Scientists studying water supply focus on weeks following peak snowpack. Lake Powell