FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Eastern Utah canyons will produce so much water this spring that as many as 50,000 toilets will flush simultaneously — desperately trying to maintain power for thousands of homes across much of the western United States.
The flow of the Green and Colorado rivers may appear to provide abundant moisture in a dry desert of sandstone arches and spiny cacti, but in fact the opposite is true.
This spring, officials hope to raise water levels in severely depleted Lake Powell on the Colorado River to keep its hydroelectric power flowing after the driest winter on record. To do that, they plan to eventually release a third of the water from the Flaming Canyon Reservoir on the upper Green River in Wyoming and Utah, which would exceed a record surge in 2022 to keep power flowing.
Lake Powell, blocked by Glen Canyon Dam, provides cheap, carbon-free electricity to more than 350,000 homes. But costs are mounting elsewhere in the disputed river basin, which is heavily relied upon by ranchers, industry and some 40 million residential water users.
In Flaming Gorge in southwestern Wyoming, Tony and Jen Valdez, owners of Buckboard Marina, expect water levels to drop 10 feet (3 meters) by late summer due to flood releases. This will mean a longer drive to the water to launch.
“Of course we’re concerned,” said Jean Valdez. “And it could get to the point where we need to pay more attention.”
Maintaining a balancing act in power production
If all goes according to plan and the weather doesn’t let up, Flame Canyon will drop as much as 27 feet (8 meters) in a year, leaving Bucksport Pier higher and drier.
While this may only be a temporary solution in the midst of a prolonged drought, there will also be impacts downstream as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water managers plan to prevent more water than usual from flowing out of Lake Powell along the Arizona-Utah route.
Downstream, Lake Mead near Las Vegas is expected to return to water levels last seen four years ago, when underwater boats and human remains were revealed.
Federal officials say drastic measures are necessary to keep the Powell waterline high enough to run power-generating turbines without allowing air to enter the system and cause damage.
Hydropower is a renewable resource – as long as there is water
About 155 customers, ranging from cities and tribes to rural electric cooperatives and utility districts, receive hydropower from Glen Canyon Dam and other federal generators. No country relies 100% on hydropower.
Many are located in disadvantaged communities and are nonprofit entities that pay, among other things, the costs of operating and maintaining the dams as well as federal investment in them.
The Federal Western Regional Electricity Authority has a contractual obligation 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 seek power elsewhere, which would likely be more expensive and non-renewable.
“If Glen Canyon hydroelectric production is reduced to zero or lower, it will have a different impact on the rates charged to the community,” James said.
James said she has never seen anything like this in her 48 years of helping electric customers in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
Emily Brandt, energy manager for Heber Light & Power in southeast Salt Lake City, said replacing federal hydropower with market purchases has forced Heber Light & Power in southeast Salt Lake City to increase rates, most recently by 13 percent.
Maintaining Lake Powell water levels could come with environmental costs
Increasingly frequent droughts, evaporation and water demand (especially alfalfa for irrigating the cattle industry) have reduced Lake Powell’s water level to 3,526 feet (1,075 meters) above sea level, only 23% of full capacity.
To maintain power generation, the water level in the reservoir cannot drop below 3,490 feet (1,200 meters), which is the inlet level for the Glen Canyon Dam generators.
This has never happened since the 710-foot (220-meter) dam was completed in 1963 and Lake Powell gradually reached capacity in 1980.
In 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation released an unprecedented 500,000 acre feet (617 million cubic meters) of water from Flaming Gorge to raise Lake Powell’s water levels. To maintain Lake Powell’s power generation, the power released from the latest Flaming Canyon could eventually double the total.
Meanwhile, plans to impound 1.5 million acre feet (1.85 billion cubic meters) at Lake Powell would result in a 40% reduction in power generated by Hoover Dam downstream of Lake Mead.
Another drawback: Warmer waters on Lake Powell’s surface could promote the spread of smallmouth bass, an invasive fish that competes with humpback whales, a threatened native species in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. Groups including the Grand Canyon Trust are urging water managers to mix in deeper, colder water to keep the Grand Canyon uninhabitable for smallmouth bass.
Decades-long drought worsens
In the coming days and weeks, the most intense releases in Flaming Gorge will be calibrated to help native fish in the Green River, a Colorado River tributary.
Ultimately, Flaming Gorge’s capacity will drop from 83% to an estimated 59%. The release of water in Flaming Gorge in 2022 was followed by a wet winter, temporarily alleviating the area’s water concerns.
“We were kind of saved by nature,” said Valdez, owner of Buckspan Marina.
One or two wet years will not be enough to reverse a quarter-century of “megadrought” that is at least partly caused by human-caused climate change. But Valdez is optimistic the wet weather will return as before.
“Hopefully we can expand into doing some other things,” Valdez said. “Because it will come back eventually.”
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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.
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