Powell Below 24% Of Capacity; Proposed Upstream Water Fix Dumped Because Sacred Irrigated Alfalfa

[hatrack]

Glen Canyon Dam may be one step closer to losing its ability to generate hydropower after water managers in Colorado announced last week that they will stop exploring one proposal to prop up the rapidly depleting levels in Lake Powell. The plan — known as demand management — would compensate farmers and ranchers for voluntarily stopping irrigation on a temporary basis, sending water that would have been used for agriculture to the reservoir.

A drought contingency plan developed in 2019 by Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming identified demand management as one method that could be used to keep the water level in Lake Powell above 3,525 feet in elevation, around a quarter of its capacity, in order to protect electricity generation. The reservoir level fell below that target elevation earlier this month. It can only drop by 34 more feet before hydropower production becomes impossible. Lake Powell’s elevation dropped by 44 feet over the last year, following 2021′s dismal spring runoff, and this year’s runoff is projected to be well below average.

The four-state demand management proposal was met with suspicion by agricultural interests, according to Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the University of Colorado Law School who previously worked on Colorado River issues under the Obama administration. Skeptics of the plan feared it could “wipe out irrigated agriculture” in parts of the river basin and fundamentally alter rural economies, Castle said at a recent University of Utah symposium hosted by the Wallace Stegner Center. She said those fears were “not unfounded” and “they would have to be dealt with in an equitable demand management program.”

EDIT

Other states in the basin have been highly critical of Utah’s plan to build the Lake Powell Pipeline, a 140-mile project that would supply water to the fast-growing St. George area, despite the critical decline of the reservoir. Utah has the lowest municipal water rates in the western United States and the highest rate of municipal water use, according to the Utah Rivers Council. The Legislature passed a number of water conservation bills this year aimed at reducing consumption.

EDIT

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/03/28/lake-powell-keep-dropping/

https://lakepowell.water-data.com/

[in2herbs]

1. IMO the foreign country owners using water to grow alfalfa in AZ and then ship to their

country need to be shut off first -- whether it be municipal or well water.

[randr]

2. This situation was totally forseen

It has just occurred a few decades earlier than the original opponents predicted. This terrible misuse of the most important natural resource for millions of people will take decades to reverse.

[dutch777]

3. So maybe those that overuse water get their power turned off first?

Might make them rethink their demands. Problem with water use and availability issues is the politics of any solutions are at least 10 years behind the problem, be it the Colorado river basin, the whole water supply system in CA or anywhere else. Sadly this will likely just be a slow motion train wreck that everyone can see coming but not enough will be done in time to avoid dire consequences.

[CrispyQ]

4. "Six billion miracles is enough."

That's a bumper sticker I bought back around the turn of the century. 22 years later we're pushing 8 billion & no one talks about that.