Newsweek previously reported that Lake Mead's dead pool level is 895 feet, while Lake Powell's is 3,370. 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 river also crosses over the US-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora. During those 25 years, the rivers annual flow averaged 13.2 million acre feet a bit less than what the Bureau of Reclamations studies have predicted it would carry by 2050 thanks to warming weather and other climate changes, Ostler noted. John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. LUKE RUNYON: Well, Arizona is in the line for the steepest cuts from the Colorado River. The dam's evil has had no more prolific publicist than the writer Edward Abbey, whose Monkey Wrench Gang aspired ultimately to bring down the dam. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. Water levels in Lake Powell dropped to a new record low on Tuesday. At full pool, Powell's water line lies 3,700 feet above sea level, and at 3,370 feet, it will reach deadpool levels. LUKE RUNYON: Well, I dont have a crystal ball. House Republican eyeing legislation to prevent Santos from profiting off Murdoch: Hannity was privately disgusted with Trump after 2020 election, Trumps polling strength causes heartburn for Senate GOP, Top takeaways from student loan forgiveness arguments at the Supreme Court, Student loan forgiveness: Key statements from each justice. 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. 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 idea that these smaller upstream reservoirs can continue to compensate Powells losses, thats not the case, he said. 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. The finding is ominous for the region's future drinking-water supply. 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 . Water levels at . The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". He says such measures can help, for sure. Northern Arizonas Glen Canyon Dam, which creates the lake, has a full capacity of 1,320 megawatts, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Keep reading with a digital access subscription. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. 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. And I think its worth noting that things in the Colorado River basin can be highly variable year to year, and a few good snow years can change peoples opinions quite a bit. A pair of before and after photos at Lake Powell . 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 . If levels dropped below 3,490 feet, there wouldnt be enough water flowing through Glen Canyon Dams turbines to generate power. The word unprecedented gets thrown around a lot in discussions about the Colorado River these days, and this is no exception. The droughts that we are seeing are becoming that much more severe because of the temperature component, theyre warmer, Bolinger 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. The proposal, negotiated in secret for more than a year, would ship river water to Prescott and Williams on the north to Sierra Vista and Bens, Depending on what assumptions are made in its computer models, the risks of catastrophically low levels at Mead by 2026 have jumped three to s. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. 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. The year as I write is now 2018. 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. 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. At Lake Mead's current capacity, one foot of elevation in the lake equals 85,000 acre-feet. The dropping water and the reservoirs expanding bathtub rings are also tied to policy. This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years.. Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. Every other state in the watershed had one of its top five driest years on record. 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.. Water managers across the region are on the clock to come up with new rules for how to share Colorado River water before 2026, when the current guidelines expire. Officials say the lowest level at which Glen Canyon Dam can . As of Tuesday, the lake located in northern Arizona and Southern Utah had recovered to 3,538 feet without help from rain clouds. A drying climate and withering heat in recent years have pummeled the region: water cuts to farmers, dry wells, mass fish and bird die-offs, and depleted reservoirs that have decimated hydropower output. BACKGROUND: Western water crisis looms as California complicates critical water deal. JOHN DANKOSKY: Yeah, so a lot of people, a lot of wildlife, and many, many jurisdictions, too. The Lower Basin states have already agreed on two short-term programs to reduce their take of water from Mead. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. I would say less than 20 percent, Ostler said. Two Mexican states also receive Colorado River water. 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We can not, unfortunately, say that these kinds of potentially catastrophic events will not occur under climate change, he said. The Colorado River basin has experienced three D4 droughts in the last 20 years, including the current one. For terms of use and more information, visit our policies pages athttp://www.sciencefriday.com/about/policies/. Lake Mead the largest reservoir in the Colorado River Basin is losing water at record speeds, dropping . 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 . Even hardy desert plants, the ones well-adapted to water scarcity, have struggled. 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. And thats because some of these past agreements have put that state in the most vulnerable position for cutbacks. Lake Mead's decline is not happening in isolation, but is the result of a two-decade drought hitting the western U.S. and causing critical water shortages on the Colorado River. 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 . 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. Powell is not drying out in a vacuum.. The increase in temperatures means the atmosphere is thirstier. The studys computer models didnt factor in rising temperatures expected in this region due to climate change. Why is Lake Mead drying up? On top of the hydropower the lake generates, its the source of drinking water for the 7,500 residents of Page, Az., and the 1,443 members of the LeChee chapter of the Navajo Nation. It wascreated by blocking the Colorado River atGlen Canyon in southern Utah and northernArizona. The second would step up cloud-seeding programs to try to boost snowfall in the region. The four Upper Basin states Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming are devising a three-legged stool plan to protect Lake Powell. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. If the outlet tubes cant meet the reservoirs needs, she said, the flow of water in the Grand Canyon itself could be reduced to a trickle. But it plays a huge role in the Colorado River basin. By the end of the summer, its projected to be even lower, at 29% of its capacity, which is a record low. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. 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. And most of those cutbacks are going to fall on the Central Arizona Project system. 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. At 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam reaches "minimum power pool." 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. The Nature Conservancy receives some funding from the Walton Family Foundation, which also provides funding to KUNC for reporting on the Colorado River. It doesn't strain the mind to imagine us losing power within a year. The bureau's report for June, added on to previously scheduled reservoir updates for January, April and August, paints a dire picture. They are trying to negotiate a three-state deal that would reduce water deliveries even further, he said. The Glen Canyon Institute has advocated for draining Lake Powell, both to replenish Lake Mead and to restore Glen Canyon, which was flooded to create Lake Powell. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Is climate change the same thing as global warming? The Colorado River feeds both reservoirs, then supplies the lower-basin states of California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico with water. 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. In the short term, yes. The Santa Cruz River is now a giant bed of dust and sand. We don't know what happens below 3,490, said Taylor Hawes, Colorado River program director at the Nature Conservancy. Nancy Selover, Arizonas state climatologist, says the Upper Basin figure is concerning because that accounts for the rivers headwaters. Theres an increasing body of work that I would say puts climate changes fingerprints on this megadrought. What states, what tribal nations, does this cut through? We are really in unprecedented territory right now, and its not even close, Meyer said. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. Frankel criticizes water managers for their inaction in the face of those trends. "The West might look different," said Hasencamp. 84% Of Upper Basin In Extreme To Exceptional Drought This is the highest percentage of land in the river's Upper Basin since 2002, which stands as the region's driest year on record. How does climate change affect you? The Glen Canyon Dam, D'deest'in Htsaa, marks where the water level in Lake Powell on the Colorado River, reaches. The sp_t cookie is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. And youre able to say, oh, the rivers high, or the river is low. Correction 01/16/23 10:56 a.m. Experts say that the reservoir may dry up completely in a few decades. . The water level at Lake Mead is sitting at just 39%, while Lake Powell is at 36%. The district entered 2021 with a record 3.2 million acre-feet of water storage saved up, including 1.3 million acre-feet in Lake Mead. 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. And thats really what were watching right now, is how low is Lake Mead going to go? According to the National Park Service, contaminants from the newly exposed shorelines are reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated. 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. 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. Correction: A previous version of this story indicated that 3,490 feet is Lake Powell's "dead pool" level. This is when were supposed to be gaining and accumulating water in the form of snowpack, and thats not happening, Selover said. Is this as bad as climate change is going to get in shrinking the snowpacks in the headwaters? You would have to go back to April of 1937, also twoyears into its initial filling, to find levels that low. This cookie is used for storing country code selected from country selector. The Glen Canyon Dam forms Lake Powell and the Hoover Dam forms Lake Mead. 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 . Levels on Lake Powell, which stores water for the. Balken said depositing the lake's water in Lake Mead, which isn't made out of sandstone,. Because of that, its expected that the Department of the Interior'sBureau of Reclamation, which oversees water management, will mandate onesometime next year. The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. 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. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The dropping water levels are indicated by white marks on the canyon wall, often likened to a bathtub ring. According to the National Park Service, contaminants from the newly exposed shorelines are reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated. The historic megadrought that is squeezing some Western states water supplies will also likely start showing up in energy bills, because those dams cant produce as much electricity. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Definitions explained. For the Upper Basin states, the reservoir storage has ensured theyll be able to meet their legal requirement under the 1922 Colorado River Compact to deliver 75 million acre feet to the Lower Basin every 10 years. In March, the reservoir passed an important threshold. Weve seen declines in snowpack at the headwaters of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Many of the. JOHN DANKOSKY: When you use the term megadrought, that sounds like a newer term. We are likely witnessing the end of Lake Powell as we knew it in the 80s and 90s, Balken said. At its highest, in 1983, the lake was 3,708 feet above sea level. "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. Water management requires planning for the future. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Its 90% of the water supply to Las Vegas, 50% to Phoenix, effectively 100% to Tucson and 25% to Los Angeles, said Udall. With the reservoirs approaching their lowest levels in modern history, that brings us to our final number: 2026. 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.. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. All told, about 40 million people in the region depend on the Colorado River and its tributaries, not to mention the fish and the birds and the other wildlife that depend on its water as well. And thats left Lake Powell at 34% of its capacity. Alex is KUNC's reporter covering the Colorado River Basin. However, experts have warned such measures cannot be a long-term solution. Lake Powell has been called Jewel of the Colorado by the federal agency that built it, the Bureau of Reclamation. On the contrary, he said, its actually become this locus of huge uncertainty, which doesnt allow downstream users to make effective plans, because they dont know what their allocations are going to be. During the 2000-2005 drought, Lake Powell lost 13 million acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet. The Hoover Dam is therefore also at risk of declining hydroelectric power generation as Lake Mead approaches deadpool levels. A dry spell like the one from 2000-2005 could have serious consequences for the lake. Throughout the history of the American West, water issues have shown their ability to both unite and divide communities. 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. The shoreline it creates, in a red rock desert, is longer than the entire U.S. West Coast.. At this stage a significant amount of Glen Canyon . And so this creates a lot of potential problems downstream in the Grand Canyon, it creates management problems for the reservoir itself in Glen Canyon, and most importantly, it jeopardizes the upper[Colorado River]basins ability to meet its delivery obligation downstream, Balken said. Asthe latest round of federal forecastsfor the rivers flow shows, its plausible, maybe even likely, that the situation could get much worse this year. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. In unprecedented territory right now, and many, many jurisdictions, too with. 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