Water to surge into drought-depleted Lake Powell but at costs elsewhere

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — The canyons of eastern Utah will be awash with massive amounts of water this spring — as many as 50,000 toilets constantly flushing simultaneously — in a desperate effort to keep power generation for thousands of homes across much of the Western United States.

The flows of the Green and Colorado River may seem like an abundance of moisture in an arid desert of sandstone arches and spiny cacti, but in reality the opposite is the case.

Later the driest winter Officials want to raise the level of badly depleted Lake Powell on the Colorado River to keep hydropower humming this spring, records show. To do this, they plan to eventually drain as much as a third of the water in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green River in Wyoming and Utah; This will exceed a record increase in 2022, keeping electricity flowing.

Lake Powell, held by Glen Canyon Dam, provides cheap, carbon-free electricity to more than 350,000 homes. But elsewhere this comes at an increasing cost disputed river basin Farmers, industries and approximately 40 million residential water customers relied heavily on this source.

In Flaming Gorge in southwestern Wyoming, Buckboard Marina owners Tony and Jen Valdez expect water levels to drop as much as 10 feet by the end of summer due to releases. This will mean a longer trip to the water’s edge to launch the boats.

“Of course we’re concerned,” Jen Valdez said. “And it will probably get to the point where we have to worry more.”

Balancing act to maintain energy production

If all goes as planned and weather conditions don’t improve, Flaming Gorge will drop as much as 8 feet per year from now, leaving Buckboard Marina even higher and drier.

Although this is likely only a temporary solution in a long-term drought environment, it will also have downstream effects as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water managers plan to prevent more water than usual from flowing through Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah line.

On the downside, Lake Mead near Las Vegas is on track to resemble previous lows from four years ago sunken boats And human remains.

Federal officials say drastic measures are needed to keep the Powell water line high enough to power power generation turbines without air entering the system and causing damage.

Hydropower is a renewable resource — as long as there is water

About 155 customers, from cities to tribes to rural electric cooperatives to utility districts, receive hydroelectric power from Glen Canyon Dam and other federal generators. None of them rely 100% on hydroelectric power.

Many live in disadvantaged communities, and all are nonprofit organizations that cover, among other things, the costs of operating and maintaining the dam and the federal government’s investments in the dam.

The federal Western Territory Power Administration has contractual obligations to provide a certain amount of electricity to its customers. Leslie James, executive director of the nonprofit Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, said the loss of hydropower would require WAPA to look for energy elsewhere, possibly more expensive and non-renewable.

“If Glen Canyon hydroelectric power is reduced to zero or a very low amount, that will have different impacts on the rates charged to communities,” James said.

It’s a situation James said he hasn’t seen in his 48 years of helping electric customers in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Replacing federal hydropower with market purchases has led to rate increases at Heber Light & Power in southeast Salt Lake City over the past five years, with the most recent increase reaching 13%, said Emily Brandt, the utility’s energy resources manager.

Keeping Lake Powell afloat could incur environmental costs

Increasingly frequent droughts, evaporation, and demand for water (especially to irrigate alfalfa for the cattle industry) have reduced the level of Lake Powell to 3,526 feet (1,075 meters) above sea level, or just 23% of full capacity.

To continue generating power, the reservoir cannot drop below 3,490 feet (1,200 meters), which is the water inflow level for Glen Canyon Dam’s electrical generators.

This has never happened since the 220-foot (710-meter) dam was completed in 1963 and Lake Powell was gradually filled to full capacity in 1980.

In 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation released an unprecedented 500,000 acre-feet (617 million cubic meters) of water from the Flaming Gorge to raise Lake Powell. The latest Flaming Gorge releases to sustain Lake Powell’s energy production could ultimately double that amount.

Meanwhile, the plan to retain 1.5 million acres (1.85 billion cubic meters) in Lake Powell would result in the Hoover Dam producing 40% less electricity further downstream in Lake Mead.

Another drawback: Warm water from the surface of Lake Powell can encourage the spread of smallmouth bass, an invasive fish that competes with humpback chub, a threatened native species, in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. Groups including the Grand Canyon Trust are urging water managers to mix in deeper, colder water to keep the Grand Canyon unfavorable to smallmouth bass.

Decades of worsening drought trend

The strongest releases from Flaming Gorge in the coming days and weeks are set to help native fish in the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River.

Eventually, Flaming Gorge’s occupancy rate will drop from 83% to an estimated 59%. Flaming Gorge’s releases in 2022 were followed by a wet winter, which eased water concerns in the area for a time.

“We were kind of rescued by Mother Nature,” said Valdez, owner of Buckboard Marina.

“One or two wet years will not be enough to reverse a quarter-century process.” extreme drought ” is at least partly due to human-caused climate change. But Valdez is optimistic that the wet weather will return as before.

“Hopefully we can expand into doing other things,” Valdez said. “Because he’ll come back eventually.”

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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

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