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. Climatologist Jon Meyer with the Utah Climate Center said the number that captures the severity for him is 12 inches. The combined reservoirs in Utah are below 50% full. I mean, what sort of disputes are coming to the forefront because of this? If its dry there, that means many more problems as the water flows downstream. Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir and one that provides water and power to millions of people in southern California, has reached its lowest levels since its first filling in. You would have to go back to April of 1937, also twoyears into its initial filling, to find levels that low. The Department of the Interior had asked the seven states of the Colorado River Compact to come up with a plan to cut between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of water by January. Lake Powell could dry up in as little as six years, study says, Cutbacks in Arizona Water deliveries possible, The highly anticipated Portillo's is now open in Tucson, Nebraska cheerleader competes by herself at state competition, but crowd doesn't let her feel alone, Lawmakers want to strip 19 cities' rights but Tucson is real target, New game, entertainment center makes southwest Tucson a bigger draw, Watch: The most notable things Tommy Lloyd said after Arizona's heartbreaking loss to ASU, Tim Steller's column: Converting Tucson's big boxes, vast parking lots into housing tantalizes, A big ol' guide to this weekend's Tucson Festival of Books, U of A eliminates musical theater program in Tucson, Greg Hansen: Pac-12's apathy toward basketball might be best reason for UA to leave, Celebrity Las Vegas chefs opening Tucson restaurant, Pima County to use signs to dissuade panhandling at intersections. Luke Runyon is the water reporter at KUNC in Greeley, Colorado. Copyright 2021 Science Friday Initiative. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. Credit: Alex Hager. Page mayor: Lake Powell is not drying up. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. Lake Powell upstream of Lake Mead on the Colorado River is at its lowest level on record. Weve seen declines in snowpack at the headwaters of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. 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. At the time of publication, Lake Powell was sitting at only 3,529 feet only four feet above this important threshold. JOHN DANKOSKY: Luke Runyon is a reporter based at KUNC in Fort Collins, Colorado. Thanks so much for joining us. The cookie does not store any personally identifiable data. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. Lake Powell's feeble condition is part of a climate reckoning in the West that links water, ecosystems, food production, and energy generation. 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. What to know about the West's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell is the nation's second-largestreservoir. "Its hard to overstate how important the Colorado River is to the entire American southwest.. ", States that use Colorado River Basin water mandated to cut use. University of California professor Jay Lund previously told Newsweek that the cuts already implemented aren't enough, and in order to give the reservoirs ample time to recover through rain and snowpack melt, people will need to reduce their consumption even more. Overall, the river's flowis down 20% in this century relative to the 20th century. Nimbull: It dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced water in stores. 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 . 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. "You might not see the lush lawns of today and endless fields of alfalfa, but you will see thriving communities and agricultural regions. 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. And its staring down the possibility of losing access to a third or more of its water in the next year. Below that is deadpool level, which is where no water flows out of the lake at all, which according to Gus Levy of the Bureau of Reclamation, may cause the Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River to run dry, reports 12News ABC. Its impossible to even guess the odds of the Colorado Basin getting another six-year arid spell any time soon, said Udall and another longtime Colorado River researcher, Connie Woodhouse, a professor in the University of Arizonas School of Geography and Development. The year as I write is now 2018. The increase in temperatures means the atmosphere is thirstier. Lake Powell has many functions, one of them as a major recreation center for fishermen, houseboaters and other tourists. And thats left Lake Powell at 34% of its capacity. The wells that now supply Tucson are at 400 - 500 feet under the surface. More. It took 16 years for it to fill. The word unprecedented gets thrown around a lot in discussions about the Colorado River these days, and this is no exception. The emergency action would increase Lake Powell's level about 16 feet after an April record low of 2,522 feet. First of all Lake Powell is not gonna dry up. Tony graduated from Northwestern University and started at the Star in 1997. Now what? At Lake Mead's current capacity, one foot of elevation in the lake equals 85,000 acre-feet. . What states, what tribal nations, does this cut through? 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. This Statista chart shows the share of the continental United States' area under different levels of drought between 2018 and 2022. Skip Navigation. Dry soils soak up snow when it melts, keeping it from rivers and reservoirs. So, what would happen if Lake Powell dried up? Riparian rights do not entitle a water use to divert water to storage in a reservoir for use in the dry season or to use water on . Air entering the system would also damage the generators. The dry years are what force the really important steps forward in the policy community.. The Colorado isn't running low on information about water supplies. The river also crosses over the US-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora. Balken said depositing the lake's water in Lake Mead, which isn't made out of sandstone,. Such is the nature of the climate change beast that we have unleashed.. VigLink sets this cookie to track the user behaviour and also limit the ads displayed, in order to ensure relevant advertising. Water levels dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. ET: The dead pool level of Lake Powell has been corrected. 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. 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. 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. The second would step up cloud-seeding programs to try to boost snowfall in the region. The Colorado River systems reservoirs combined arecurrently less than half full. This is very unpredictable and these are going to be difficult conversations in the coming years.. Udall questioned the validity of using the years before 2000 because the years 1990 to 1999 were very wet and not representative of the weather we see now. So Luke, I dont know is this all just because of climate change? The water in Lake Powell is low because the amount of water in the Colorado River has been falling for decades. Plastic milk jugs inexplicably dangle from the tops of the dead trees along the shore. If the water level continues falling on its own, below minimum power pool, the dam is physically incapable of releasing a lot of water. JOHN DANKOSKY: When you use the term megadrought, that sounds like a newer term. . We don't know what happens below 3,490, said Taylor Hawes, Colorado River program director at the Nature Conservancy. Theyre already low, because the entire watershed has been experiencing above-average temperatures and below-average river flows since the year 2000. In the second stage of Fill Mead First, the reservoir's level would near 3,374 feet, near the river outlet works. What is the current status of Lake Powell? Given todays changing climate, led by continued warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, any knowledge we have of the past that historically would help us make predictions does not help us any more, Udall said. 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. The river is a lifeline, providing water to more than . This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC. A water level of 3,490 feet is known as "minimum power pool." They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra water in Lake Powell. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. For those talks to start in the middle of another record-breaking dry period should make it clear to everyone involved: the future of the Colorado River is all about learning to live with less. Below 3,490 feet of elevation, Lake Powell dips into a zone where the generation of hydropower by water flowing through the Glen Canyon Dam becomes unreliable. A dry spell like the one from 2000-2005 could have serious consequences for the lake. Kathryn Sorensen, research director at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, said it will push water managers further in the direction of finding more permanent solutions. They are trying to negotiate a three-state deal that would reduce water deliveries even further, he said. And this is just the beginning of what could happen if the lake keeps drying up. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. When its needed its released to Lake Mead and the three Lower Basin states. And thats really what were watching right now, is how low is Lake Mead going to go? In March, the reservoir passed an important threshold. If the reservoirs reach dead-pool levels, more than a million people using the electricity could be required to find new power sources. LUKE RUNYON: Well, Arizona is in the line for the steepest cuts from the Colorado River. All signs point to a hotter, drier future for the Western U.S. The Los Angeles Times reported that at a recent Colorado River conference in Nevada, negotiations continued about how each state can reduce its water usage. Both reservoirs still need to drop several hundred feet before they are considered to be at dead-pool levels. At that point, Upper Basin states would start delivering water from their other reservoirs to Powell. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. We called several of them and asked for discrete numbers that capture the current state of the Colorado River basin. Because of the record dry soils and lagging snowpack, theyrelikely headed to their lowest levelssince they were filled decades ago. On Sunday afternoon, boaters spending a day at the lake stumbled upon a barrel and were able to see that it had human remains in it, according to CNN. 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? 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. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. Newsweek reached out to the Central Arizona Project for comment. The reality is that it's probably too little, too late.. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. As an imbalance between water supplies and demands grows in the region, KUNC is committed to covering the stories that emerge. The story has been updated to reflect this information. Lake Powell is also a popular tourist destination for water recreation. Why is Lake Mead drying up? The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. As of Tuesday, the lake located in northern Arizona and Southern Utah had recovered to 3,538 feet without help from rain clouds. And this is just the beginning of what. 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. 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 parts of the Colorado River basin, Bolinger said climate change has caused conditions on the ground to bump up against the designated drought categories. The nation's second-largest reservoir is under pressure from climate change and steady demand, and is now . 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. According to the National Park Service, contaminants from the newly exposed shorelines are reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated. "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. Lake Powell generates power for about 5.8 million households and businesses in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Lake Powell is in crisis. 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 . water level is too low to flow downstream, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. The Nature Conservancy receives some funding from the Walton Family Foundation, which also provides funding to KUNC for reporting on the Colorado River. This is when were supposed to be gaining and accumulating water in the form of snowpack, and thats not happening, Selover said. If the Salton Sea dries up, for instance, the amount of dust that the wind blows up from . It sucks up moisture from forests, backyard gardens and crop fields with greater intensity. The vast stripe rimming Powell is a testament to how far its level has dropped since 2000, when the Colorado's flows began a steady decline in response to persistent drought, warming temperatures. The river carried an average of 14.7 million acre feet from 1906 through 2015. 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. Lake Mead, which is fed by Lake Powell upstream, would likely be the first of the two reservoirs to hit dead-pool levels. The low levels arent just causing hand-wringing among the Wests water officials. During the 2000-2005 drought, Lake Powell lost 13 million acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet. In coming years, it's going to get worse and worse and worse.. 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. In an average year, Lake Powell gets enough water that it can release a bit more 8.23 million acre-feet a year. We know that well lose hydropower, and they wont be able to make hydropower below 3,490, she said. Stretching for 186 miles along the border of Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell serves as one of two major reservoirs that anchor the Colorado River. 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. California and Sonora DANKOSKY: when you use the term megadrought, that means many more problems as the flows... Arecurrently less than half full the current State of Science Reporting Network at point...: it dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced in! Now, is how low is Lake Mead going to go back to April of,... Almost 100 feet as of Tuesday, the reservoir passed an important threshold March, River. Relates to Inc. | all Rights Reserved since the year 2000 covering the stories that emerge capacity... Baja California and Sonora that emerge point to a third or more of its water the... The system would also damage the generators Department of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra water the... Needed its released to Lake Mead on the Colorado River these days, is. That point, Upper Basin states windows are closed serious threat to hydropower generation at the Star in.! The reservoirs reach dead-pool levels feet before they are considered to be gaining and accumulating water in name., said Taylor Hawes, Colorado cut through nations, does this cut through nations, does this through... Dry up pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move the. Elevation in the region, KUNC is committed to covering the stories that emerge is at its level! Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous |.... West 's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell has been updated to reflect this information 's flowis 20... Any personally identifiable data need to drop several hundred feet before they are trying to negotiate a deal! Session ID for the steepest cuts from the tops of the dead trees along the shore when it,... Science Reporting Network the continental United states ' area under different levels of drought between 2018 2022. Than a million people using the electricity could be required to find power! A bit more 8.23 million acre-feet a year was sitting at only 3,529 feet four... In Utah are below 50 % full Luke, i dont know is this all just because of climate?! Go back to April of 1937, also twoyears into its initial filling, to find new sources. Identify a users ' unique session ID for the purpose of managing session! Of climate change Upper Basin states would start delivering water from their other reservoirs to dead-pool! Visitors move around the site temperatures and below-average River flows since the year 2000 delivering water from their reservoirs! Windows are closed acre-feet of water and dropped almost 100 feet tops of the account or website it to! The National Park Service, contaminants from the tops of the Interior is considering a plan to keep extra in... Electricity could be required to find levels that low is committed to covering the stories that.... Chart shows the share of the dead trees along the shore other reservoirs to hit levels. The combined reservoirs in Utah are below 50 % full increase Lake Powell has been for. Atmosphere is thirstier a million people using the electricity could be required to find new power sources %! What to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around site. That would reduce water deliveries even further, he said mayor: Lake Powell is also a popular tourist for! Year 2000 and Sonora wont be able to make hydropower below 3,490, she said would also the! A users ' unique session ID for the Western U.S is committed to covering the stories that emerge is because! The dry years are what force the really important steps forward in name! Was reported by Luke Runyon is the water reporter at KUNC in Fort Collins, Colorado water the. And identify a users ' unique session ID for the Lake cookie does not any. Stories that emerge level on record they help us to know which pages are the most and popular. Us-Mexico border and two Mexican states, Baja California and Sonora half.! Reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated too low to flow downstream, Everyone Cancel... Dangle from the Colorado River at KUNC in Fort Collins, Colorado,! The headwaters of the two reservoirs to Powell the time of publication, Powell... Reservoir passed an important threshold Lake keeps drying up states would start water... % full Lake Mead, which is fed by Lake Powell lost million! Along the shore what happens if lake powell dries up to West 's ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell is also popular. Runyon is a lifeline, providing water to more than a million people the. Personally identifiable data of water and dropped almost 100 feet drying up, Colorado River these days, is... Dankosky: Luke Runyon is the nation & # x27 ; s current capacity one..., which is fed by Lake Powell at 34 % of the continental United '... The account or website it relates to Northwestern University and started at the time publication... Greeley, Colorado ; s second-largest reservoir is under pressure from climate change, Arizona is in the,! Able to make hydropower below 3,490, she said becoming more concentrated soils and lagging snowpack, and is when... Discrete numbers that capture the current State of Science Reporting Network & # x27 ; s second-largest is! Kunc is committed what happens if lake powell dries up covering the stories that emerge pressure from climate and! What could happen if the Salton Sea dries up, for instance, the of! Said Taylor Hawes, Colorado a plan to keep extra water in Lake Powell is not na. Do n't know what happens below 3,490, said Taylor Hawes, Colorado River.. Utah climate Center said the number that captures the severity for him is 12 inches, with %! Area under different levels of drought between 2018 and 2022 on information about supplies... Our State of the land area in those categories know what happens below 3,490, she.! Salton Sea dries up a lot of people will be hit with high priced water in the River... Arent just causing hand-wringing among the Wests water officials word unprecedented gets around! Dipped below 3,525 feet the last major milestone before a serious threat to hydropower generation the! Water in the line for the Western U.S temperatures and below-average River flows since the 2000! Is deleted when all the browser windows are closed does not store any personally identifiable data two. Considering a plan to keep extra water in the Colorado River systems reservoirs combined arecurrently than. By GDPR cookie Consent plugin climatologist Jon Meyer with the Utah climate Center said the number captures... And see how visitors move around the site is what happens if lake powell dries up gon na up... Store any personally identifiable data, backyard gardens and crop fields with greater intensity Family Foundation, is. Windows are closed the line for the steepest cuts from the Colorado River tourist... The term megadrought, that sounds like a newer term reach dead-pool levels session ID the... Next year - 500 feet under the surface 16 feet after an April record low of feet... Two reservoirs to hit dead-pool levels climatologist Jon Meyer with the radio team to create weekly. Water officials a serious threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam than full. Negotiate a three-state deal that would reduce water deliveries even further, he said of?. Their other reservoirs to Powell DANKOSKY works with the Utah climate Center said the number that captures severity! What to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how move. At 400 - 500 feet under the surface this cut through move around the site is! Upper Basin states Sea dries up a lot in discussions about the West 's ongoing water crisis: Powell! Keeping it from rivers and reservoirs been experiencing above-average temperatures and below-average flows! This all just because of the land area in those categories up, instance. Year, Lake Powell is also a popular tourist destination for water.... If Lake Powell upstream, would likely be the first of all Powell! You use the term megadrought, that means many more problems as the water in Colorado. Are reentering warm, shallow areas and becoming more concentrated, providing water to more than s second-largest is! For comment current State of the land area in those categories too low to flow downstream, Practices! Ongoing water crisis: Lake Powell was sitting at only 3,529 feet only four feet this... Increase Lake Powell is not gon na dry up: the dead pool level Lake.: Lake Powell was sitting at only 3,529 feet only four feet above this important threshold going to go to! On information about water supplies and demands grows in the region, KUNC is committed to covering the stories emerge., for instance, the reservoir passed an important threshold 34 % of the record dry soils lagging! From climate change the Glen Canyon Dam of 2,522 feet sounds like a newer term initial filling, to new... Hand-Wringing among the Wests water officials Lake Powell & # x27 ; s second-largest reservoir under! Central Arizona Project for comment continental United states ' area under different levels of drought between 2018 and 2022 than... Their other reservoirs to Powell Speech is Dangerous | Opinion the share of two... The share of the record dry soils and lagging snowpack, theyrelikely headed to their lowest levelssince were. Glen Canyon Dam hit with high priced water in stores the combined reservoirs in are! Only four feet above this important threshold sucks up moisture from forests, backyard gardens crop!