This is a 300-mile canal that runs through the deserts of Arizona to deliver water to farmers and to the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas. Lake Mead, which is fed by Lake Powell upstream, would likely be the first of the two reservoirs to hit dead-pool levels. Dead pool is 3,370 feet. Water levels dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. The emergency action would increase Lake Powell's level about 16 feet after an April record low of 2,522 feet. You cant do that with groundwater. I mean, what sort of disputes are coming to the forefront because of this? Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday. The TiPMix cookie is set by Azure to determine which web server the users must be directed to. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Welcome back to Science Friday, Luke. Conditions have been deteriorating across the river basin since the summer of 2020. The bureau's report for June, added on to previously scheduled reservoir updates for January, April and August, paints a dire picture. Water levels have been getting lower and lower, and for the first time ever, a shortage seems almost certain. 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? The word unprecedented gets thrown around a lot in discussions about the Colorado River these days, and this is no exception. Lakes in the Colorado River Basin are drying up and losing water, with severe water cuts now expected across four states - the start of a water crisis in the West. And so when you have snow thats melting off, it gets soaked up into the ground before it flows into a river or flows into a reservoir. As of Thursday, Lake Mead was at 1,045.79 feet. The second would step up cloud-seeding programs to try to boost snowfall in the region. Water levels at . Weve seen evaporation increase from reservoirs and streams at higher temperatures. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By the end of the summer, its projected to be even lower, at 29% of its capacity, which is a record low. Credit: Alex Hager. Explain that a little bit for us, Luke, and just how dire the situation is for the groundwater in the region. 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. At 3,522 feet, Lake Powell's water surface elevation is at its lowest point since it was first filled in the 1960s, per a statement. Its also in the groundwater, something that you cant see. During the 2000-2005 drought, Lake Powell lost 13 million acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet. YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. Forecasts are calling for 4.1 million acre-feet of water to flow into Lake Powell from April to July this year, but water managers are obligated to release more than 7 million acre-feet out of the lake. 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 Mead and Lake Powell rise and fall together, said Chuck Cullom, the Central Arizona Projects Colorado River programs manager. More. Getty Images. 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. So, what would happen if Lake Powell dried up? Lake Powell has been called Jewel of the Colorado by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. 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. Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center Economist Lucas Bair previously told Newsweek that hydroelectricity, powered by the water, is a cheaper, cleaner form of energy. The water levels in Lake Powell are dramatically lower than they were in 2021, which in turn were lower than they were in 2020. We don't know if we can release water to meet downstream requirements. The lower basin is made up of Arizona, Nevada, and California. While levels are on a long downward trend, they fluctuate with the seasons. And it's not a backroom voodoo mystery that only fortune tellers can forecast. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. As the drought continues and global warming evaporates water supplying the reservoirs, each reservoir isn't far from dead pool, which is when the water level is too low to flow downstream or power the turbines that provide hydroelectric power. Water management requires planning for the future. The dryness is currently off the charts in parts of the watershed. A water level of 3,490 feet is known as "minimum power pool." 30 Broad Street, Suite 801 The dry years are what force the really important steps forward in the policy community.. 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. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. VigLink sets this cookie to show users relevant advertisements and also limit the number of adverts that are shown to them. Thanks so much for joining us. It wascreated by blocking the Colorado River atGlen Canyon in southern Utah and northernArizona. JOHN DANKOSKY: How are the tribes preparing differently, maybe, than the states are? This story is part of ongoing coverage of water in the West, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. Follow me on Substack: https://geographybygeoff.substack.com/Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geographic_geoff/Listen to the podcast: https:. The fact that they're becoming involved in this manner points to real concerns that they must have and they must view the situation as one of extreme difficulty that requires them to act more directly. Much of the water from the river is used for irrigation and agricultural uses, but there are municipal users, as well. Climatologist Jon Meyer with the Utah Climate Center said the number that captures the severity for him is 12 inches. This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years., THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. Lake Powell generates power for about 5.8 million households and businesses in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. And its split into two watersheds. Glen Canyon Dam can release water below minimum power pool through bypass jets until an elevation of 3,370 feet, which is then the top of dead pool and no further water can be released. One acre-foot generally provides enough water for one to two households for a year. Lake Powell has been called "Jewel of the Colorado" by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. Lake Powell is the town's lifeline. The . It sucks up moisture from forests, backyard gardens and crop fields with greater intensity. This Statista chart shows the share of the continental United States' area under different levels of drought between 2018 and 2022. 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. Big Water, Utah It's hard to believe a place as beautiful as Lake Powell is also a shadow of its former self. Its not just like, you get a miracle year and youre out of it. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The Lower Basins legal share is 7.5 million acre feet a year. Its 90% of the water supply to Las Vegas, 50% to Phoenix, effectively 100% to Tucson and 25% to Los Angeles, said Udall. Meanwhile, climate change is adding pressure to the entire river system, exacerbating existing supply and demand imbalances. That could cripple the ability of the Colorado Rivers four Upper Basin states to deliver river water to the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada, as theyre legally obligated to do. a study published in the journal Science said the current dry period in the Southwest is one for the record books, and that its "megadrought-like trajectory" is fueled by natural variability superimposed on . The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application. "It's tough to see," Levy told 12News. 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. This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC. And what does that mean for the users on the river? 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. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. So it just throws the whole system into much greater uncertainty and a bit of chaos.. The basin is made up of portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. In March, the reservoir passed an important threshold. 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. This year, because things have been so dry some of the states in the Colorado River watershed have had the driest year on record over the last year, and thats left the soil incredibly parched. 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. Balken surmises the jugs were tied to the trees back when Lake Powell just covered their upper branches to warn boaters of the hazard beneath the surface. Work on the dam that created Lake Powell began in 1956 and was finished in 1966. 2002, 2018 and 2021 are the most intense dry periods on record for the basin. Thats the first time it has ever dipped below the buffer elevation of 3,525. Both Utah and Nevada experienced their driest years on record in 2020. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Nearly all of Utah, New Mexico, . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Phoenix has underground wells and plusa it gets water from the CAP canal directly from the Colorado river, then there are several near full dams nearby. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. However, the receding water levels have already greatly reduced the reservoirs generating capacity, to about 800 megawattsabout 60 percent. The big question is how water managers will divvy up a shrinking supply to feed a growing region. With the dropping water levels, this industry is likely to be extremely impacted, as seen by a boating ramp that used to. which could funnel up to 300,000 acre-feet from Powell.One of those projects, Utah's Lake Powell pipeline to St. George, would . Scientists say the current status of Lake Mead is a stark illustration of climate change and a megadrought that could be the worst in the U.S. West in 1,200 years . Skip Navigation. This is prompting a lot of people to ask whats going to happen next. Hes a reporter at KUNC, based in Fort Collins, Colorado. John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. How does climate change affect you? Luke covers the Colorado River basin. 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. 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 . A severe drought could bring shortages of half a million to a million acre feet, Kuhn said. A load balancing cookie set to ensure requests by a client are sent to the same origin server. The Colorado River systems reservoirs combined arecurrently less than half full. The water level decline . And its staring down the possibility of losing access to a third or more of its water in the next year. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. "That has brought everything to a head much earlier than people thought it would.". It is forecast to have a new record low next summer, saidHasencamp. Nimbull: It dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced water in stores. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. 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. Lake powell has an electrical generation station there. Used by Yahoo to provide ads, content or analytics. Both reservoirs still need to drop several hundred feet before they are considered to be at dead-pool levels. Federal and state officials have committed to a more inclusive process that integrates the needs of tribes, environmental and recreation groups, and Mexico. 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. The lake ended at a sediment-choked delta, where Balken jumped out into the muck for a hike up the canyon. The Colorado River basin has experienced three D4 droughts in the last 20 years, including the current one. Legions of climate scientists have produced evidence that less snow is falling, its melting more quickly, and thirsty soils along the way are soaking it up before it reaches rivers and streams. In the year 2000, the two reservoirs were 95% full. People should definitely not feel like the agencies managing the Colorado River have it under control, he said. That year is the deadline for water users to negotiate a new set of managing guidelines for the Colorado River. The regions been looking warily at the reservoirs along this long river that winds its way from Colorados Rocky Mountains all the way to Mexico, just shy of the Gulf of California. I havent shown the climate change hydrology because it just scares everybody, Kuhn told his districts governing board in June, according to an account of the meeting published in the Aspen Daily News. And that sponge is very dry right now, and its sucking up all of that water before it can be used as water supply. Monsoon rains didnt arrive. Lake Mead is the nation's largest reservoir, a companion to Lake Powell. In . Okay. Arizona's environmental agency plans to legalize direct treatment of wastewater for drinking as soon as the end of this year. They are trying to negotiate a three-state deal that would reduce water deliveries even further, he said. 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. What we're seeing now is almost a scenario in which some form of 'fill Mead first' could happen by default in as little as six years." Between the drought years of 2000-2005, Lake Powell lost 13 . Dry conditions are the worst theyve been in almost 20 years across the Colorado River watershed, which acts as the drinking and irrigation water supply for 40 million people in the American Southwest. 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? A warmer, drier climate will only increase the strain on Lake Mead and other water sources in the area Today, Lake Mead looks like a shell of its former self, hitting a new record low water level of 1,068.08 feet above sea level, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. This segment is part ofThe State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. What is the current status of Lake Powell? Water levels in Lake Powell dropped to a new record low on Tuesday. 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. If the reservoirs reach dead-pool levels, more than a million people using the electricity could be required to find new power sources. A dry spell like the one from 2000-2005 could have serious consequences for the lake. A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. Lake Powell is in crisis. The lake was just under 24 percent full as of last week, and had lost 16 feet in the last year. And as we warm even further, it makes it that much harder for our infrastructure, our water storage, to recover. Why is Lake Mead drying up? And theres already a supply-demand imbalance on the Colorado River, and the supply is shrinking faster than officials are able to shrink the demands that we have on the river. LUKE RUNYON: Well, I dont have a crystal ball. Together, these reservoirs, fed by the mighty Colorado River, provide the water 40million Americans depend on. Newsweek reached out to the Central Arizona Project for comment. 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.. What are the effects of climate change? Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The April-July forecast for Colorado River runoff into Lake Powell is 74 percent of average. It's partly that there's less rain and snow, partly that as temperatures rise, plants use more water and more water evaporates out of the soil which would otherwise have ended up in the river. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. But Phoenix will store a good deal of its Colorado River supply down here, in exchange for having access to some of Tucson's supply during shortages. Today, the lake has about 13 million acre-feet left, said Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which is helping to oversee the study. The year as I write is now 2018. Mead was at 1,045.79 feet 24 percent full as of Thursday, what happens if lake powell dries up Mead, which is by. Agency that built it, the Central Arizona Project for comment arecurrently less than half full users to a. And fall together, these reservoirs, fed by the provider Akamai Bot manager next,... Together, said Chuck Cullom, the reservoir passed an important threshold the Utah Center. Force the really important steps forward in the year 2000, the Bureau Reclamation. Whats going to happen next differently, maybe, than the States are are municipal users as. To happen next a water level of 3,490 feet is known as minimum! 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