![]() “Cities, farmers and fish all need certainty when it comes to water, and this is the opposite of certainty,” Hawes said. And it doesn’t allow ratepayers who rely on power production from the canyon to be forward-thinking and operate under conditions of certainty.” On the contrary, he said, “it’s actually become this locus of huge uncertainty, which doesn’t allow downstream users to make effective plans, because they don’t know what their allocations are going to be. It is not creating certainty in the water market,” Mankin said. Lake Powell “is supposed to buffer water supply during times of drought it is not performing that function now. Musk said he plans to cut nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s workforce: reportĮnergy & Environment - Biden confronting pressure on gasoline prices Ultimately, experts said the future of the lake must be addressed in a way that creates the certainty it was intended to provide. 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 basin’s ability to meet its delivery obligation downstream,” Balken said. If the water level continues falling on its own, “below minimum power pool, the dam is physically incapable of releasing a lot of water. 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. 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. “This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years.” Taylor HawesĬolorado River program director at the Nature Conservancy If the outlet tubes can’t meet the reservoir’s needs, she said, the flow of water in the Grand Canyon itself could be reduced to a trickle. #ENCORE ENERGY POWELL WY PLANT SERIES#If the lake’s 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 “don’t actually know if they can handle that much water,” she said. “The idea that these smaller upstream reservoirs can continue to compensate Powell’s losses, that’s not the case,” he said. In addition, Mankin said, interventions like the Flaming Gorge release treat the western U.S.’s 20-year drought as a localized phenomenon rather than a regional one. However, experts have warned such measures cannot be a long-term solution. Officials have already taken some stopgap measures to avert the lake getting down to the pivotal 3,490-foot mark.Įarlier this year, the Bureau of Reclamation released about 500,000 acre-feet from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming to Lake Powell, increasing its elevation about 16 feet. ![]() What happens if we pass that point, and what can be done? On top of the hydropower the lake generates, it’s 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. The loss of generation from the lake would deprive the grid of about a quarter million households’ worth of power. In addition to the power the lake generates directly, it is a major source of grid resilience when full, serving as a quick backup source in cases where solar or wind power can’t meet demand. Lake Powell generates power for about 5.8 million households and businesses in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River, Arizona. However, the receding water levels have already greatly reduced the reservoir’s generating capacity, to about 800 megawatts-about 60 percent. #ENCORE ENERGY POWELL WY PLANT FULL#Northern Arizona’s Glen Canyon Dam, which creates the lake, has a full capacity of 1,320 megawatts, according to the U.S. ![]()
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